Itchy eyes, runny nose, and sneezing are all the top signs of allergies. If you experience them year-round or seasonally, they can make you feel quite miserable. Many different kinds of allergy medications can help to keep your symptoms in check.
Whether you experience the allergy symptoms like itchy eyes, runny nose, and sneezing, these can make you feel quite miserable. However, many allergy medications can help keep your symptoms in check.
However, with all the choices for allergy medications available, you may be taking the wrong medications without getting relief from symptoms.
Here is how to find one that meets your medication needs.
How Long Does Allergy Symptoms Last?
Allergy symptoms may last anywhere from a few hours to several months, depending on the reason causing them and how they are treated. For a few people, allergy symptoms only tend to appear at specific times of the year but may even last for a few months, known as seasonal allergies. For others, they can be year around, known as the perennial allergies.
People with seasonal allergies means the times when they experience symptoms as ‘allergy season.’
Seasonal allergies could be most troublesome in the fall and spring. Depending on your location in the US, spring allergy season may start as early as February and last into the beginning of the summer. Conversely, fall allergy season usually lasts from August to October, with mid-Spetember being the roughest.
Causes of Allergies
Allergic rhinitis, or hay fever, refers to the symptoms affecting your nose. It happens due to environmental allergens, which include:
- Pet hair
- Mold
- Dust in a house
- Pollen from grass or trees
Specific foods you may be allergic to trigger an immune response, but they rarely lead to perennial allergies.
Common Symptoms of Allergy
While allergy symptoms vary from person to person, the most common ones include:
- Watery eyes
- Runny nose
- Sneezing
- Itchy skin or eyes
What are the Best Allergy Medications?
Depending on how long the symptoms last, specific allergy medications may work better than the rest. Here are the top most common types of allergy medicines people use:
Antihistamines
Oral antihistamines will be your best bet if your allergies appear only sporadically when the pollen count is high, or you have a random encounter with a friend’s cat.
These include over-the-counter (OTC) allergy medicines like:
- Xyzal (levocetirizine)
- Zyrtec (cetirizine)
- Allegra (fexofenadine)
- Claritin (loratadine)
- Benadryl (diphenhydramine)
Histamine is a chemical that the immune system releases when we come into contact with something we have an allergy. This triggers allergy symptoms like itchy eyes or runny nose. Antihistamines block areas of your body where histamine would generally attach, which results in these symptoms.
While few people take antihistamines as needed for allergy symptoms, daily use is recommended by experts as it may be an option to consider for people struggling with symptom control.
In case of seasonal allergies, you can use antihistamines before getting exposed to an allergy trigger like pollen. Starting the medicine at least two weeks before allergy season may help you achieve great results. In addition, it can be beneficial if you suffer from frequent allergic symptoms.
Nasal Steroids
If you experience year-round or even daily allergies, you must look into nasal steroids as an allergy medication. It may also help if you know about seasonal allergic symptoms, which last several weeks.
OTC nasal steroids options include:
- Nasonex (mometasone)
- Rhinocort (budesonide)
- Flonase (fluticasone propionate)
- Nasacort (triamcinolone)
The medicines may take longer to work than the antihistamines, but healthcare providers consider them the most effective maintenance therapy for nasal allergies. As a group, it is more effective at controlling nasal congestion than antihistamines.
When you suffer from allergies, a complicated series of reactions occur in your immune system between the moment you sense an allergen to when you get a runny nose. Nasal steroids act early in these reactions, even before histamine forms in your body, and prevent the process from leading to a full-blown allergic response. However, the specific way nasal steroids work has yet to be proven.
Decongestants
Decongestants, which include oral medicine like Sudafed (pseudoephedrine) and OTC nasal sprays like Afrin (oxymetazoline), can be helpful for you to improve symptoms by relieving sinus and nasal congestion.
It usually works in about 30 minutes. Depending on the state, Sudafed may need a prescription. However, you may find it behind the pharmacy counter if you do not need anyone.
A few allergy medicines like Claritin-D and Allegra-D combine antihistamines and decongestants into the same pill to simultaneously target congestion and other allergic symptoms.
Decongestants may help you to breathe a little easier if you feel stuffed up, but their intake should be short-term. It is essential to know that specific nasal decongestant sprays, like Afrin, can worsen your congestion if used for more than a few days (called rebound congestions).
Oral decongestants like Sudafed and you should not use it if you have specific health conditions like high blood pressure and heart conditions. Thus, if you have underlying health conditions, talk to your healthcare provider or pharmacist before you try it.
How Long Does Allergy Medication Take to Work?
When you experience allergy symptoms, you want to feel better and faster. But as each product works differently and treats specific symptoms, you must select the allergy medications that can help you the most.
If you need fast congestion relief, nasal and oral decongestants may start working in 15-30 minutes. Antihistamine usually starts to work within 1-2 hours, depending on the product you take. You can also find antihistamine nasal sprays like Astepro that starts to work in as less as 15 minutes.
On the other hand, nasal steroids take the longest time to provide a benefit, sometimes even a few weeks. It is why they are better for symptom prevention than treating symptoms as it happens.
Will Allergy Medicine Make You Drowsy?
Like all medicines, allergy medications may have side effects. It may include drowsiness depending on the type of allergy medications you take.
Here are potential side effects that different allergy medicines may have:
Side Effects of Nasal Steroids
Serious side effects with nasal steroid sprays are quite rare as few of these medicines absorb by the body. However, it carries the risk of nasal tissue inflammation. It is why it is essential to have regular check-ups with a provider when you use these medicines for a long time.
Side Effects of Decongestants
Decongestants do not have an association with drowsiness. They can even keep you awake at night. If you face trouble sleeping with short-term use and are looking for other options for quick relief, you can look for other alternatives.
Side Effects of First-Generation Antihistamines
Drowsiness is one of the common side effects of older, first-generation OTC antihistamines like Benadryl. The medications may work quickly to control the allergy symptoms, but they may get into your brain, causing drowsiness and other neurological symptoms like difficulty concentrating.
Side Effects of Second-Generation Antihistamines
Side effects related to the brain are less issue than the newer OTC second-generation antihistamines like Allegra and Claritin, as they are less likely to enter the brain.
Exceptions are always there, and Zyrtec is a second-generation antihistamine that may get you more sleepy than Allegra or Claritin.
Possible side effects of second-generation antihistamines could be:
- Ringing in the ears (tinnitus)
- Dizziness
- Dry mouth
Can you Save on Allergy Medicine?
There are many ways to save on allergy medicines. First, you can download an rx discount card to help you get good discounts on prescription medicines. Apart from that, copay savings cards and patient assistance programs are other methods that can help you. With a pharmacy discount card, you can find allergy medicine prices as low as $3.
Best Allergy Medicine
Best allergy medicine depends as there are a few things to consider when you select the medication for yourself.
- Cost
- Side effects
- Symptoms
How quick relief do you need
Fast-acting medicines like antihistamines work quicker if you are experiencing any symptoms. While you can take antihistamines daily, remember to take decongestants only when needed and in the short term. Other allergy treatments, like allergy shots, may also take years to reach their full effect.
Nasal steroids and antihistamines would be good options to prevent the symptoms from happening if you take them daily before the allergy season hits.
Conclusion
Many options help you treat allergic symptoms, including those for specific symptom relief. You should talk to your pharmacist or provider about the kind of allergy medications that can help provide you the most benefit and is compatible with any medication or health conditions. You can also get discounts with free pharmacy discount card.
