A whopping 81 million Americans suffer from seasonal allergies, and the competent, caring team members at the Allergy and Asthma Clinic of Central Texas understand exactly how disruptive those allergies can be.
Fortunately, we offer an innovative treatment for allergies that’s a form of immunotherapy, a type of treatment that harnesses your own immune system’s power to combat symptoms. In the case of allergies, you receive injections at specific junctures.
Many of our patients have experienced greatly enhanced quality of life once they start with an allergy shot regimen, finding they can return to enjoying their lives fully once again, after nagging, uncomfortable allergy symptoms abate.
According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, central Texas locales like Austin and San Antonio fall within the Top 50 allergy hotspots in the United States — as do cities in other parts of Texas, including El Paso and Dallas.
Why? Because central Texas has:
Because of this, you’re more likely to be plagued by a persistent runny nose, frequent sneezing, chest tightness, and even trouble breathing.
Even though allergens aren’t harmful, your body recognizes them as such, and your symptoms flare.
When you’re coping with unrelenting allergy discomfort, it’s easy to understand why allergies have also been linked to mental health challenges like anxiety and depression.
If you’ve been dealing with debilitating allergy symptoms for too long, your Allergy and Asthma Clinic of Central Texas provider may decide that it’s time to try immunotherapy, or allergy shots.
Before we craft a customized treatment plan for you, however, we’ll want to perform allergy testing to pinpoint what’s going on and treat your allergies in the most effective, targeted way. We use several methods for testing, but getting this information is critical.
The goal of allergy shots is to reduce your sensitivity to the allergens to which you react, and this treatment is designed for those with allergic rhinitis, allergic asthma, conjunctivitis, and insect sting allergies, as opposed to food allergies.
Over a period of a few months, we give you injections that contain increasing amounts of allergens.
Many opt for allergy shots because they don’t want to take allergy medications for extended periods — and these periods are growing longer and longer with the longer allergy seasons we’re seeing.
If your symptoms are serious and allergy medications and environmental remediations (like improving indoor air quality, for example) just aren’t doing the trick, immunotherapy treatment may be right for you.
Allergy shots work in the same way that vaccines for other illnesses, like the flu, do. Starting with just a small amount but working our way up, we introduce the allergen into your system, via injection, slowly building your tolerance. The great news is that you may not only experience reduced allergy symptoms, but they might also disappear completely!
The two parts of the regimen are a buildup phase, during which you receive shots once or twice per week, sometimes more frequently. This phase lasts for 3 to 6 months.
Once we arrive at your optimal dose, you start your maintenance phase, and you don’t have to get shots as often. During this phase, you receive an injection once every 2 to 4 weeks. You generally stay in the maintenance phase anywhere from 3 to 5 years.
Results can begin during the buildup phase, but can also take as long as a year to occur. Patients aged 5 and older are eligible for allergy shot treatment. A bonus: Bad reactions to allergy shots are quite rare.
If allergies have taken over your life, it may be time to approach us about allergy shots. They can be quite liberating, especially if you want to be freed from sustained dependence on medication or if other treatments simply haven’t been successful.
Contact our Killeen, Round Rock, or Georgetown, Texas, office to learn more about allergy shot treatment and how it can help. You can also book an appointment with us online.
