Best Way to Treat Allergy with Anti-Inflammatory Therapy

Once the diagnosis of allergy has been made there are three main approaches to treatment, which all complement each other but which vary from condition to condition in their relative merits and relative importance.

Anti-inflammatory therapy

The development of allergic inflammation is the underlying basis for asthma, rhinitis, conjunctivitis, and eczema. Drugs that suppress this inflammation provide the most effective method of relieving symptoms.

The main anti­inflammatory drugs are the corticosteroids, although chromones are also used. Corticosteroids are administered via the nose, airways, eyes, or skin in the form of a spray, as an inhaled aerosol, drops, or as a cream or ointment for the treatment of rhinitis, asthma, conjunctivitis, and eczema, respectively. Steroids can also be given orally for these conditions, as well as for urticaria, depending on the severity. External/ inhaled application is preferable since lower doses are then required and there is less concern about any potential side-effects with long-term use.

This treatment needs to be taken on a daily basis to suppress the inflammation and is considered to be a preventer or prophylactic, therapy. Other forms of treatment are needed for the acute relief of symptoms.

Reliever therapy In general, the term reliever therapy is used to describe medication taken by asthma sufferers when needed to relax the muscles around their airways that have been constricted due to the inflammation, and so make their breathing easier Drugs that fall into this category are usually given by inhalation, rather than orally, for rapid effect. Short-acting types are used as a medication whenever someone with asthma feels uncomfortable with their breathing. The long-acting varieties, which last 12 hours, are used regularly, twice daily or at bedtime to prevent the airways narrowing and so minimize symptoms. These drugs should be used in conjunction with an anti-inflammatory.

Theophylline therapy is also designed to widen the airways and ease breathing. The medication is taken, by mouth, on a daily basis as a maintenance treatment to minimize symptoms. Theophyllines are generally used as an add-on therapy to preventer therapies for people suffering with asthma. They have a very narrow therapeutic to toxicity ratio and must not be taken without a physician’s recommendation.