Bracing for a Mold-filled Fall: How to Treat your Mold Allergy
Onalaska, WI (PRWEB) September 25, 2017 -- As pollen season comes to a close, many allergy sufferers continue to experience allergy symptoms, likely due to mold. Because mold tends to grow any place that is damp, dark and warm, it’s very common during the fall months. Considering the rains and flooding around the country, symptoms from mold allergy are expected to be even more prevalent than usual. Helping people learn to build short-term allergy relief and long-term tolerance has been a focus of treatment through the La Crosse Method™ Practice Protocol, which uses allergy drops rather than allergy shots to treat mold allergy and more.
With so many different molds in our environment, it’s difficult to identify which one(s) could be causing allergy symptoms. Mike Kachel, RPh, Allergychoices Pharmacy Director, explains that this fall, alternaria is going to be a mold that causes suffering for many. Though it’s around from spring to fall, with the typical fall weather conditions, it’s known to prevail beyond that time.
Kachel explains that alternaria is common inside as well as outside, making it nearly impossible to avoid. While alternaria is the most common mold, and the most common mold to cause allergy symptoms, other molds can cause reactions, too. “There are the big five: Alternaria, cladosporium, aspergillus, penicillum, and helminthosporium. They’re the most prevalent, but there are hundreds of different molds. Just because a patient’s allergy test doesn’t show sensitivity to one of the common molds doesn’t mean another mold couldn’t be triggering allergy symptoms.” Allergychoices has created a reference that helps people identify the different types of molds and when they’re most commonly found.
The prevalence of mold is an issue for many due to its allergic tendencies. Symptoms can range from aggravated asthma conditions to eye itching, sneezing, sinus pressure, aching, exhaustion or throat drainage. Because people are often allergic to more than one mold, a patient might experience one set of symptoms one day and different symptoms the next, making it often difficult to diagnose. Because of the long mold season, and because of the inflammation the mold can cause in the sinuses, one of the common allergic complications is chronic sinus infections.
While there are a few treatment options, sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT), also known as allergy drops, has been shown to be a safe and effective way to address the root cause of mold allergy. Like allergy shots, allergy drops work by gradually building the body’s tolerance to the substances causing allergic reactions, but allergens are placed in liquid form under the tongue where the body’s largest amount of tolerance-building cells are located. Allergychoices’ pharmacy compounds prescriptions under the La Crosse Method Protocol for inhalants, foods, and offending molds at very precise levels that are custom to each patient’s sensitivity, at a dose that prescribers match to the patient’s individual allergic “fingerprint.”
Along with treatment, these lifestyle measures are recommended to help combat mold and reduce exposure:
• Close your windows and turn on air conditioning if humidity is an issue; relative humidity should be around 40-45%.
• After spending time outdoors, shower, change clothes and use saline irrigation in your nose.
If you find mold in your home, first identify the source to stop any additional problems:
• Isolate the area by closing it off
• Remove any wet or mold-damaged materials, or work with professionals to do so, and place in plastic bags (many experts recommend at least 6 mil thick bags, and to double bag)
• Clean the affected area with one part bleach and three parts water
• Use fans and/or dehumidifiers to dry
• Don’t wait! Clean up should be immediate. Be sure to wear personal protection (goggles, N95 respirator, gloves, etc.), or consider bringing in mold remediation experts for larger jobs. Find out more about mold remediation at https://www.epa.gov/mold.
For more information about mold allergy treatment, visit https://www.allergychoices.com/about-allergy-drops/conditions-best-treated-with-allergy-drops/mold-allergy/ or call 866-793-1680.
About Allergychoices, Inc.
Allergychoices began in 2000 as the first dedicated education, advocacy, and networking resource for patients and physicians who were interested in sublingual immunotherapy to treat the underlying cause of allergic disease in the U.S. It was founded by allergy providers who developed the La Crosse Method Protocol, based on decades of clinical experience at their Allergy Associates of La Crosse practice in Wisconsin. Today, the company has grown to be a leading healthcare services company that provides tools that enable physicians across the U.S. to provide sublingual immunotherapy within patients’ reach, and gives allergy sufferers information and access to treatment options using custom sublingual immunotherapy close to home.
Anne Hendrickson, Allergychoices, http://www.allergychoices.com, +1 608-791-5300, [email protected]
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