If you’re favorite season is winter, you aren’t alone. Millions of seasonal allergy sufferers look forward to the coldest days of the year because they are finally free of the one scourge they cannot avoid – pollen.
Here’s a connection that you might not be aware of: some allergy sufferers find that their allergens don’t just trigger the most common symptoms, they also trigger migraines.
Fred Belcher knows all about this. Winter weather chases his migraines away. At other times of the year, Belcher is debilitated by his severe headaches: “Light would affect me. [The headache] would pretty much shut me down.”
The migraines coincided with the onset of the allergy season.
Dr Min Ku, an allergist, indicated that Belcher’s predicament is not all that unusual. With nasal allergies, you run a risk of migraine over 14 times higher than folks without allergies.
How do allergies trigger migraines? The histamine released in an allergic reaction causes swelling of blood vessels and other nasal tissues. The pressure and constriction of blood flow are what causes the headache.
Ku indicated that when doctors treat the nasal allergies aggressively, that migraines often get better.
Treatment options to target nasal passages include steroid sprays. Other treatments that help to reduce environmental allergies include allergy shots – but this is a long term strategy and will not decrease migraines in the short term.
Allergy shots use the “vaccine” theory to help to reduce your reaction to allergens. Each shot is comprised of a small dose of your allergen. You start with the smallest dose that you can tolerate and progress slowly to larger and larger doses, building up tolerance to the allergen along the way. Most courses of treatment will run for years, in order for the patient to get maximum benefit.
If allergy shots could be right for you, start them now while the winter is still upon us. While you can begin treatment for environmental allergens at any time, the only way allergy shots will give you some relief next spring is if you start now.
Sources: NBC DFW and reporting from Be Allergy Wise
