Housatonic Valley News

• Allergy symptoms include sneezing, a stuffy or runny nose, watery eyes and an itchy nose, eyes or mouth.

• Inflammation is a common cause of allergy symptoms.

• Potential allergy treatments include over-the-counter medications, nasal sprays and immunotherapy.

Inflammation could be the cause of your allergy symptoms, according to Dr. Robert Weiss of CT ENT Sinus Center.

"There's a relationship between allergies and chronic sinus problems," Weiss told Housatonic Daily News. "The  way to diagnose allergies, though, has come a long way in the last few decades. We use a method -- the official term for it is called MQT -- and this is a modified blend of different techniques. The nice thing about it is usually, within 30 minutes to 45 minutes, we can get an answer and we don't have to have the patient come back the next day."

Older allergy protocols used a small plastic device stuck on your back or your arm, Weiss said.

"They'd read it, and they'd say, 'OK, come back in another day, another time, and we'll do more testing.' That was not very convenient for most of us, so this blended method is nice because, most of the time, we can pick which allergens, pollens and types of things we want to test for and have an instant reading within 30 to 45 minutes."

Allergy tests today are also more accurate, Weiss said.

"It's not guessing that you're allergic to this particular tree -- or usually, it's  multiple trees," he said. "But there are also a lot of indoor allergies that we test. So pets, cats and dogs, mold, dust, dust mites, that kind of thing. So we usually can give the patient a pretty good idea of where they're encountering the things that are making them sick. Is it in your home? Is it in your  office? Is it a certain time of year? That's very valuable information, because if you know this as a patient, you can anticipate when you're going to encounter this stuff, when you're going to be sick and feel bad, and you can do something about it."

More than 50 million Americans suffer from allergies every year, and allergies are the sixth-most-common cause of chronic illness in the U.S., according to the American College of  Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Allergic rhinitis, also known as hay fever, can be either seasonal or perennial and can cause sneezing, a stuffy or runny nose, watery eyes and an itchy nose, eyes or mouth.

In adults, chronic sinusitis is often linked to nasal swelling caused by allergies, especially allergies to inhaled dust, mold, pollen or the spores of fungi, according to Harvard Medical School.

Allergy symptoms, such as itchy eyes, can be caused by inflammation, which is a result of the body attempting to protect itself from allergens, according to MBG Health. When someone is exposed to an allergen, the body's natural stress response is to secrete hormones such as cortisol and chemicals like histamine, but studies have shown that those secretions can lead to inflammation, which in turn makes allergy symptoms, as well as asthma, even worse.  

Depending on the type and severity of your  allergies, your doctor could recommend various treatment options, according to Mayo Clinic. Some treatments options are over-the-counter medications, nasal sprays, immunotherapy or -- for very severe allergies -- carrying an   emergency epinephrine shot, such as an EpiPen.                   

To find out more about allergy symptoms and treatment, visit CT ENT Sinus Center.