BB.lv: Does asphalt minimize down our roots?

Affiliate professor of the College of Medication of the College of Latvia, doctor-allergist Maris BUKOVSKIS and pharmacist Elena BEBRE from Mēness aptieka are participating within the spherical desk.

– Many individuals, with the onset of heat and the blossoming of nature, start to have issues: a sore throat, dripping from the nostril, working eyes, eyelids swelling, pores and skin redness and itching. Why are increasingly individuals affected by seasonal allergic reactions, or, as in addition they say, hay fever?

Dr. Maris Bukowskis: – It’s clear that the higher we reside, the extra frequent allergic reactions will change into. There may be an assumption, to which critical scientists on the planet are inclined, that allergic reactions are nothing greater than a consequence of the event of civilization. The extra our life-style is divorced from pure nature, the much less our immune system is accustomed to it. And folks themselves create issues that many organisms don’t settle for.

Most certainly, environmental air pollution and the ubiquity of family chemical compounds affect the unfold of allergic reactions on the planet.

I’m inclined to the speculation that isolation in childhood from varied infections additionally weakens our immune system. Thus, Austrian researchers discovered that kids who’re in fixed contact with pets don’t undergo from allergic reactions as typically in maturity. And Finnish consultants created a really exact expression on this matter – “asphalt cuts down our roots.” If the immune system doesn’t prepare, doesn’t get used to what it ought to have gotten used to since childhood, then an allergy happens attributable to a genetic predisposition.

I observe that the Finns have been critically engaged within the seek for strategies to scale back the unfold of allergic illnesses over the previous a long time. Amongst different issues, they suggest sustaining probably the most pure atmosphere across the baby: for instance, kids of faculty and preschool age had been purported to dip their fingers into black soil for 15-20 minutes each day. Soil micro organism present some safety towards doable allergic reactions. The parts of the Finnish program are easy: bodily exercise, being in nature, contact with animals, enhancing air high quality, early feeding of kids from 4-6 months, complete diet, fermented milk merchandise, wild berries…

– It seems that if a household lives on a farm (farm, in some form of agriculture), the place there are pets and a barn, the place there may be little chemical compounds and a whole lot of ecology, this shall be good when it comes to the resistance of kids and adults to every kind of allergic reactions?

Dr. Maris Bukowskis: – Not a assure, however a particular plus. The pure microbiome offers an individual its protecting affect, and never solely when it comes to allergic reactions…

– What’s an allergy?

Dr. Maris Bukowskis: – It is a failure of the immune system, its response to the weakening of its personal defenses. If we’re speaking regarding hay fever, then on this case the physique errors the innocent pollen of flowering vegetation for the causative agent of a harmful an infection and begins to battle it. Therefore the tears, coughing and all different bodily torment.

Allergic reactions additionally typically happen to meals merchandise: dairy, eggs, fish, nuts (particularly peanuts), wheat. One other group of allergic illnesses are acute reactions of the respiratory tract to cats and mud mites.

Respiratory allergic reactions, together with hay fever, are additionally harmful as a result of throughout their improvement they generally flip into bronchial asthma.

One other sort of allergy is contact reactions of the pores and skin, for instance, to family chemical compounds or metals (together with cash).

Pharmacist Elena Bebre: – Primarily based on the expertise of speaking with pharmacy guests who come for assist as a result of signs of spring-summer hay fever, I can affirm the phrases of the professor. The primary wave of such allergic reactions in Latvia begins on the finish of March and continues by way of Could – that is the interval of flowering of alder, birch, and hazel. The second wave of allergic reactions happens in June-July, when timothy grass (Latin Phleum pratense) and lots of different discipline vegetation bloom. The third on this record is August, when the wormwood begins to spike.

– How does an allergy present itself?

Dr. Maris Bukowskis: – Even the traditional Romans described hay fever from contact with rose petals.

The well-known doctor Galen referred to as this response to flowers idiopathy. The time period “hay fever” belongs to the English physician John Bostock, who once more in 1819 established the connection between his unusual sickness and the interval of hay harvesting. Throughout sure weeks of the 12 months, he skilled the identical signs: sneezing, watery eyes and runny nostril. In 1873, it was confirmed that allergic reactions are attributable to small particles of plant pollen, which, following getting into the human respiratory tract, trigger an allergic response.

You might want to perceive that with any sort of allergy, suspicious rashes and redness might seem on the physique. Unreasonable itching begins, for a lot of – irritation of the mucous membranes, swelling, discomfort within the throat or ears, extreme runny nostril with out indicators of a chilly. A headache and, as a consequence of all the issues, irritability and elevated fatigue might happen.

– And what ought to those that now stroll round with a swollen nostril and watery eyes do? Or will he get up tomorrow with unusual sneezing and inexplicably swollen eyes?

Dr. Maris Bukowskis: – I’d encourage you to be extra attentive to your self and perceive that if the physique behaves non-standardly, it signifies that one thing is occurring to it. You might want to seek the advice of a health care provider, particularly since allergic reactions are being handled as we speak. In case you have a runny nostril and cough that doesn’t go away for a very long time, you typically undergo from colds, or signs recur in the identical season 12 months following 12 months, be sure you seek the advice of an allergist, even when it appears to you that nobody in your loved ones has allergic reactions. One of many penalties of untreated allergic reactions is bronchial bronchial asthma, which is manifested by wheezing and a lingering dry cough.

I’ll repeat: allergic reactions are being handled as we speak. Laboratory exams make it doable to differentiate allergens for a selected particular person. After which, when the supply of irritation to the physique is recognized, the principle factor is obvious – which allergens to attempt to keep away from. There are drugs and the strategy of immunotherapy – that’s, accustoming the physique to particular allergens, however artificially.

– However earlier than you get to the physician, what must you do in the event you expertise discomfort – sneezing, coughing, affected by a runny nostril and watery eyes? And all that is almost certainly not a chilly?

Dr. Maris Bukowskis: – If doable, it’s crucial to scale back, as we are saying, pollen publicity – for instance, with hay fever, go exterior much less, put on a masks. If doable, in the event you can work remotely, simply go to a different local weather zone for 1-2 months, the place the identical birches don’t develop… What else are you able to suggest?

Shut the home windows, do moist cleansing extra typically, however nonetheless this isn’t a radical answer to the issue, possibly just some aid – and that’s in query…

There are some antihistamines that may be bought and not using a prescription. It’s higher to decide on second-generation medication that don’t have a drowsy impact – by the best way, amongst these there are these which can be produced in Latvia, on the native enterprise Olainfarm. The energetic ingredient of this drug is quifenadine, a blocker of H1-histamine receptors, which prevents the event and alleviates the course of allergic reactions.

It has antiallergic, antiexudative and antipruritic results, stopping the event of allergic irritation within the tissue.

Pharmacist Elena Bebre: – Sure, a lot of emergency measures may be taken to restrict disagreeable allergy signs. Antihistamines scale back sneezing, runny nostril, and itching by affecting the quantity of histamine within the physique. Some first technology antihistamines might trigger drowsiness, so watch out in the event you take them through the day!

Due to this fact, we frequently suggest antihistamines, as Dr. Bukovskis stated, of the second technology, which include the energetic substances cetirizine, loratadine and sure – hifenadine. One pill a day is sufficient, it helps for 12 hours, and they’re very properly tolerated. By the best way, the Latvian antihistamine, produced at AS Olainfarm, has a double pharmacological absorption cycle within the physique, and if different antihistamines don’t assist, then almost certainly it can work.

Decongestants slender the blood vessels within the nostrils, lowering nasal congestion and swelling. But when decongestants are used steadily and for a very long time, disagreeable signs might happen – dryness and a burning sensation within the nostril, medicinal rhinitis.

Antihistamine/decongestant combos mix the consequences of each medication.

Notice that nasal sprays act regionally and quicker than oral decongestants. And steroid nasal aerosols have an effect on inflammatory processes, lowering them. There are additionally drops for the eyes – they scale back itching, stinging, and watery eyes.

In fact, although allergy-relieving drugs may be bought and not using a prescription, it’s endorsed that you just seek the advice of together with your physician or pharmacist first to make sure that you’re choosing the proper one.

I wish to draw your consideration to the truth that when utilizing antihistamines, it can be crucial to not take a number of drugs from this group on the identical time. I seen that folks typically take a number of antihistamines for allergy signs, not realizing that these are energetic substances from the identical group of medication. That is flawed in each sense!

To keep away from undesirable unwanted effects of medicines, you must seek the advice of your physician or pharmacist when taking drugs. You might want one other sort of medicine, reminiscent of steroid nasal sprays, which can be found solely by prescription.

Dr. Maris Bukowskis: – Allergic reactions should be handled, particularly since as we speak we do that very successfully.

Fairly often, already within the second 12 months of immune remedy, the affected person refuses all drugs, lives with out signs of the illness, he both has no want for allergy drugs in any respect, or the necessity for them is drastically lowered.