our health: ALLERGIES
The Efficacy of Drops
Local doctor predicts more allergy sufferers in
the States may soon benefit from a tried-andtested European treatment
BY MEL W. RHODES
PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
are FDA-approved and are safer than
shots.”
Hall said in SLIT “drops are
placed under the tongue daily to
desensitize allergy receptors located
there.” The treatment lasts “three
to four years with the effectiveness
lasting 10-12 years before the
desensitization wears off.”
According to the Journal of
Environmental and Public Health:
“SCIT [injection therapy] is a wellestablished treatment modality
that has been successfully used for
many decades and is relatively well
tolerated. Occasionally patients can
develop severe reactions that very
rarely can result in mortality. SLIT
is also a very old
treatment modality
(earliest description is
from 1900) and yet,
while commonly used
in Europe, it is still
not well established
in the USA. Over
the last 20 years the
European medical
community produced
a large amount of
high-quality evidence
suggesting that SLIT
is safer than SCIT.
While no single
case of mortality has
ever been reported
with SLIT, this is not
the case with SCIT.
SLIT is so safe and
easy to administer
that patients treat
themselves at home.”
Additionally,
JEPH published: “Our
findings demonstrate
that SLIT is not only
MARCH 2016
Allergies can seem like a plague
— stifling irritants for many and all
but incapacitating for others. Misery
is a word often used to describe their
effects.
According to Dr. Alan Hall, M.D.,
of Oakridge Urgent Care in Hudson
Oaks, “Allergy symptoms go way
beyond sneezing, watery eyes and
runny nose; they include rashes,
chronic colds, sinus infections,
headaches, fatigue, joint pain, asthma
and more. The cause of your misery
could be pets, dust, mold or pollen
from trees, grass and weeds.”
Though considered by some the
“epidemic of the twenty-first century”
— as many as 50 million people in
the U.S. suffer from them annually —
allergies are not a new phenomenon.
Still, as medicine advances, both
sufferers and doctors are constantly
seeking effective treatments for the
ailment.
One common treatment is
the allergy shot, an injection
administered at regular intervals over
a period of three to five years. The
treatment is a form of immunotherapy
with each shot containing a tiny
amount of an allergen that in larger
quantities would cause a full-blown
allergic reaction. Over time the
amount of allergen administered
increases and the immune system
builds up tolerance to the offending
substance, becomes desensitized to
the allergen, and symptoms diminish.
Dr. Hall prefers a different,
relatively “new” sort of
immunotherapy — Sublingual
Immunotherapy (SLIT).
“In my opinion, it is a better
method because it’s safe — less
reactions — and convenient — you
can do it at home,” he said. “They
effective in controlling symptoms in
nasal allergy patients with or without
asthma, in decreasing medication use
in such patients, and in improving
parameters of pulmonary function,
but it also appears that SLIT is as
effective as SCIT.”
Concurring with these findings,
Dr. Hall said, “It is already the most
common method in Europe and since
its recent FDA approval in the U.S.,
I predict it will become more widely
used here in the U.S.”
Three things that may ensure that
the now FDA-approved SLIT does
catch on here in the States are: 1)
folks tend to shy away from needles
and if given the option, will take a
less painful course of action; 2) the
convenience of self-administration
at home instead of driving in to the
doctor’s office is attractive; and 3)
everyone wants to feel the treatments
they undergo are as safe as possible.
Should Dr.Hall’s prediction hold
true, more allergy sufferers will
have a new option for assuaging
their misery, a new weapon in their
arsenal with which to battle their
allergic discomforts.
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