Hey everyone, welcome back to Seeker+ and our final episode all about allergies.
Episode 1 was a detailed breakdown about how your immune system’s IgE antibodies flip
out when they bump into something harmless, eventually causing the release of a chemical
called histamine that’s responsible for a variety of symptoms.
Episode 2 explored why some people get allergies and others don’t.
Be sure to check those out because, as always, they have valuable context for this episode.
And they’re interesting.
And I had like, one or two good jokes in there, I think.
Now finally we’re going to talk about if it’s possible to get rid of your allergies
for good.
Before you try and treat your allergies it may help to know exactly what you’re allergic
to, and to help find out you can see a specialized doctor called an allergist.
The first step to help narrow down the list is an interview about your medical history,
how often you experience symptoms, what your home and office environment are like, if you
have any pets, and if anyone in your family is allergic to anything.
If it sounds like you are indeed having an allergic reaction to something, there are a
few different tests a doctor can order to try and identify the culprit.
One is a blood test that looks for abnormally high levels of IgE antibodies.
Because these antibodies play such a big role in allergic reactions, elevated levels of
certain IgE antibodies could point you in the right direction.
There’s also skin tests where potential allergens are pricked against the skin or
injected just underneath for more sensitivity.
These tests have their limits though and should be administered based on what the allergist
thinks the problem is.
If something in your environment could be to blame, a blood test might not be particularly
helpful because it could miss some allergies.
In this instance a skin prick test is better suited.
If a specific food may be the problem, it’s important your allergist knows that based
on your health history.
Otherwise a skin or blood test on a broad range of foods has a high potential for false
positives.
If you might be allergic to medication or insect stings, that’s when you really need
a pro.
Only one antibiotic can be confirmed as an allergen using a skin test, and that is penicillin.
Otherwise your doctor will lean heavily on your health history.
If the cause of your troubles still isn’t clear, they may elect to do something called
a graded challenge.
Now it’s not graded in the sense of a high school physics exam, don't panic, instead the patient
is given a steadily increasing dose of a medication to see how it affects them.
Also unlike a high school physics exam where a bad grade means your dream of being a scientist
is dead and you’ll have to fill the void by writing science youtube videos instead,
a graded challenge gone wrong could send you into anaphylaxis.
So, slightly higher stakes.
That’s why the patient should be hospitalized or in some setting where doctors can react
quickly if need be.
Once the allergen that’s sending your immune system into overdrive is identified, the next
step is figuring out a treatment.
Unfortunately there is no way to completely cure an allergy, but there are ways to reduce
their frequency or mitigate how severe they are.
The first and most obvious course of action is, once you know what’s causing your allergy,
simply avoid that thing.
Is your medication causing a reaction?
Talk to your doctor about alternatives.
Allergic to shellfish?
Try sticking to foods that aren’t horrifying nightmares from the deep.
If pollen is your problem, try staying indoors with the windows shut at times when pollen
counts are high.
You could also try wearing a mask outdoors, which has been shown to provide significant
protection from pollen.
Unfortunately thanks to climate change it’s likely that we’ll see higher pollen concentrations
and longer pollen seasons in the future.
Oh climate change, is there anything you can’t make worse?
Avoidance of common allergies may be easier said than done.
After pollen, most people are allergic to dust mites, which are tiny beasties that look
like the head crabs from Half Life.
Only instead of turning you into a shambling zombie, they make you a miserable sniffling
sneezing wreck.
So, same difference.
They feed on dust, aka your dead skin cells.
So it’s not the dust you’re allergic to when you kick some up, but the mites that
feed on it.
Well, and this is gross and most sources kind of dance around this fact, but it’s not
the mites you're allergic to either.
It’s their poop.
And urine.
And dead bodies.
Ewwwwww.
Unfortunately no matter how hard you try you’ll never be completely rid of them.
They live in your bedding, mattress, upholstery, carpets, curtains.
Your home is basically one big dust mite graveyard slash portapotty and I’m sorry you have
to live with that knowledge forever now.
You can vacuum, wash your bedding often, dust more, and lower the humidity in your house,
which will reduce their numbers, but they’ll always be there.
Always.
Even if you could eliminate an allergen source, you may not want to.
What if, I don’t know just making up a scenario at random here, but your wife who grew up
on a farm in Tennessee really loves cats, and despite your past indifference to cats
and your fierce loyalty to team dog, you’ve started to come around on these domesticated
killing machines too?
You may think this is the perfect time to get a hypoallergenic cat or dog.
The only problem is those don’t exist.
Breeders market cats or dogs claiming they’re hypoallergenic due to their specific kind
of coat, or no coat at all.
Pet allergies aren’t caused by their fur or hair, but by proteins they secrete in their
skin and saliva.
It may seem that cat hair is the culprit, but really it’s because cats use their saliva
to bathe their entire bodies, absolutely inundating their fur with these proteins.
So at best these breeders are unknowingly perpetuating a myth with good intentions,
and at worst they’re knowingly selling animals to people who may struggle to take care of
them and may decide to give them up again.
If you’ve got a cute cuddly pet that your immune system sees as a declaration of war,
you may still have options.
You can keep your pet outside as much as possible, or at least out of your bedroom.
If you’re willing to use medications you can try a variety that counteract histamine,
the main chemical messenger behind many symptoms you might have.
They’re called, surprise surprise, antihistamines.
They may have some unwanted side effects like drowsiness, especially first generation ones
that are commonly available over the counter.
Another option might be a nasal spray of corticosteroids.
If those and other medications don’t work and you’re really committed to keeping Bootsie,
then you could try immunotherapy that trains your immune system to dial it down a notch.
Often this is done using weekly or even semiweekly shots containing the offending allergen in
steadily increasing doses.
Once your body gets the hang of it after several months, you’ll still have to come in every
two to four weeks, and eventually once a month for possibly the next three to five years.
And even then your symptoms aren’t cured, they just won’t appear as often, fingers
crossed.
The things we do for love, right Boots?
By the way I’ve seen people on TikTok claiming they can perform immunotherapy on themselves
and overcome things like peanut allergies.
And they’re not giving themselves precisely controlled injections either, they’re just
eyeballing the dosage they ingest.
All I’m going to say about that is TikTok is not an accredited medical school.
Neither is YouTube.
Anybody can just say anything on these websites.
See a doctor if you can before putting something in your body you know for a fact can cause
an allergic reaction.
Still, even with the help of a medical professional, some allergies just can’t be trained away,
like those severe enough to cause anaphylaxis.
If you have one of these, then you already know you need to carry around at least one
injectable dose of epinephrine, known commonly by the brand name EpiPen.
Preferably you should have two because 20 to 30% of the time one dose is not enough.
Epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, is the only treatment for anaphylaxis.
It causes blood vessels that were dilated by histamine to constrict again, while also
relaxing the blocked off airway.
Once you use it and your symptoms clear, you could still be in danger, so get to a hospital
and have them monitor you for the next 48 hours in case you get a second reaction when
the epinephrine wears off.
It’s such a strange twist of fate that the immune system that’s meant to keep you alive
can make you feel terrible or even possibly kill you.
But thanks to allergists and medical science it’s possible to keep it in check so it’s
fighting harmful invaders and not some ragweed pollen you just got a noseful of.
Next time allergy season rolls around, maybe you won’t be so quick to curse your immune
system.
Or maybe you will.
It’s really awful and I hate allergy season.
Hey thanks for tuning in to this Seeker+, I hope you enjoyed it and learned something new.
If there are other topics that you think would benefit from my undivided attention let us
know on Twitter or Instagram, we're @Seeker.
Until next time, take care and try to enjoy the flowers.
Maybe from the comfort of inside your own home.