Do Your Allergies Change Over Time?

July 25, 2018

Most people picture allergy-sufferers as having dealt with their allergies since childhood, but it’s actually very common for adults to develop allergies and for child allergies to fade with age!

Here are a few reasons why:

Hormones

Especially for women, who usually encounter multiple hormone shifts in their lifetime, new or altered allergies often accompany childbirth, menopause, or even a change in menstrual symptoms.

The link? Specifically, estrogen.

Estrogen is a hormone that actually promotes the release of histamine—the chemical in our bodies that create allergic reactions. While estrogen is a dominant hormone in women, it’s actually a hormone that becomes more common in men as they age. That’s why some men develop allergies later in life that they never encountered when their estrogen levels were low and testosterone levels were high!

Exposure

Sometimes, especially in food allergies and pet allergies, the sufferer simply builds resistance to the allergens that formerly disrupted their immune system simply by being more frequently exposed to the allergens.

This exposure is the backbone to immunotherapy treatments, which expose your body to increasing amounts of the threatening allergies over time, so that your body eventually learns to react differently to those allergens.

Immunotherapy is usually delivered via shot treatments, but BreatheAmerica actually offers sublingual immunotherapy, which delivers treatment through pills! This has been a welcome and effective alternative for many of our patients.

Environmental Changes

This should be obvious, but many people surprised by a change in allergies fail to take into account the environment in which their allergies ended or began! If you’re from the northwest and make a move to the seasonally pollen-filled southeast, you’re about to be exposed to a whole new—and abundant—set of allergies.

Are you dealing with a new development of allergies?

We can help! Our customized treatment plans deliver lasting results. You may never have to flinch at the sight of pollen again!

Call us today to get started towards a life of freedom today.