Physicians and allergists are in general agreement that there are three basic categories of allergy symptoms. The three categories can be broken down into mild, moderate, and severe. We will outline what characterizes each category in what follows.
Mild Symptoms
Many different types of allergies can be the cause of the three mild symptoms. They are:
Congestion
Itchy, watery eyes
A rash or hives
One thing that all these mild but still somewhat annoying symptoms have in common is that they don’t spread to other areas of the body. Decongestants and antihistamines are often employed to alleviate the milder symptoms of allergies.
Your immune system contains cells called “mast cells”. These release a substance called histamine to battle the phantom enemy that an allergic reaction seeks to battle on your body’s behalf.
Histamine also binds to other receptors. This can cause congestion, itchy; watery eyes, and rashes. As the name implies, antihistamines block histamine receptors, preventing those symptoms.
You may also have used decongestants to alleviate the congestion associated with your allergy. Decongestants shrink swollen tissues and blood vessels. Symptoms such as nasal swelling, congestion, and excess mucous secretions are dealt with thereby. Eye drops such as Alrex and Dexamethasone may also be employed.
Moderate Symptoms
Moderate allergy symptoms essentially take the mild allergy symptoms to the “next level”. Your and your doctor’s response to this escalation may include steroids. Your doctor will actually call this medicine a corticosteroid. It’s designed to reduce the inflammation caused by allergies.
Moderate symptoms may also necessitate the use of more powerful antihistamines or decongestants as treatments.
If your allergy symptoms reach an asthmatic level your physician may prescribe a bronchodilator to treat the problem. Bronchodilators can be either short- or long-acting. Short-acting bronchodilators furnish quick relief for asthma symptoms.
Long-acting bronchodilators are used to provide up to 12-hours of symptom relief.link text
A group of drugs called mast cell stabilizers is employed in the treatment of mild to moderate inflammation in the bronchial tubes and other allergy symptoms. They are sometimes used to prevent asthma symptoms before exercise activities begin.
Severe Symptoms
In a real sense, there is only one severe allergy symptom and that is anaphylaxis. This thankfully rare allergic reaction is made up of a variety of symptomatic components. These include cramps, vomiting, belly pain, diarrhea, mental confusion, dizziness, and swelling that interferes with breathing and swallowing.
An anaphylaxic reaction is characterized by the body’s sudden response to an allergen of some kind. Initial symptoms, such as itchy watery eyes, can appear to be mild. Escalation to much more serious symptoms can proceed with great rapidity. The reaction can also involve the entire body as the immune system responds in a number of ways to a perceived threat.
Severe reactions may need to be treated using epinephrine injections. Reactions to bee stings, peanuts, and shellfish are a very common cause of severe symptoms. Epinephrine should be administered with care. Emergency allergy kits can be particularly useful for children with allergies. They may also be of use to people at risk of anaphylaxis. They commonly contain antihistamines as well as epinephrine. Consult your doctor about such kits.
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