Stress Might Be Making Your Allergies Worse
Stress impacts people in so many ways – it’s the body’s way of protecting itself, and can show its effects not only mentally, but physically. Your brain might respond with spinning, while your breath and heart rate also increase. The stress hormones racing through your blood stream can cause other complications too, some unexpected, like an increase in allergy symptoms.
How Allergies Work
Allergies happen because of a response like stress. When you breathe in an allergen and the body interprets it as harmful, it responds by releasing histamine. This release can cause a variety of symptoms like itching, sneezing, respiratory symptoms, hives, and more.
Similarly, when you’re stressed, the body responds in defense-mode and releases a stress hormone. How can the two – stress and allergies – impact each other?
Why Stress Impacts Allergies
Doctors at Harvard say that stress can impact your allergies in two big ways.
First, if you’re already stressed, you may notice your allergy symptoms even more. You’re hyper-aware of the things going on around you, especially the not-so-positive things, like an onslaught of allergy symptoms.
The other idea is that the immune response may be higher when the body is in stress mode. We like to think of it as the Total Allergen Load. When your hypothetical bucket gets full with things like food allergies, environmental allergies, chemicals, illnesses – and then stress is added on top of it – that bucket can overflow. That’s when you start to really feel the overwhelmingness of symptoms.
How to Reduce Stress and Allergies
There are hundreds of different ways you can reduce stress, and you have to figure out what works best for you. Whether it’s yoga, taking a bath, working out, or doing a puzzle, any stress-reducing activity is great for your health.
To truly reduce your allergic reactions, you need to do more than just cover the symptoms with antihistamines and itch creams. Allergychoices advocates for allergy drop immunotherapy that changes the body’s response to allergens.
How does it work? A clinician will complete allergy testing, a thorough history and exam to determine which allergens you react to. Using The La Crosse Method™ Protocol, they formulate allergy drops personalized to you with tiny amounts of each of your problem allergens. Over time, the strength is slowly and safely increased until the body is used to it and learns to not react when exposed naturally.
If you’re consistent with treatment, you should be left with minimal symptoms, or ultimately with no symptoms at all. Reducing your allergies can help reduce your Total Allergen Load and protect you from an onslaught of symptoms when you’re stressed.
Getting started with treatment is stress-free. Find a clinician near you that offers treatment, and take the first step toward feeling better – schedule an appointment and start feeling better soon.