What Causes Allergic Rhinitis
You have an allergy when your body overreacts to things that dont cause problems for most people. These things are called allergens. If you have allergies, your body releases chemicals when you are exposed to an allergen. One such chemical is called histamine. Histamine is your bodys defense against the allergen. The release of histamine causes your symptoms.
Hay fever is an allergic reaction to pollen. Pollen comes from flowering trees, grass, and weeds. If you are allergic to pollen, you will notice your symptoms are worse on hot, dry days when wind carries the pollen. On rainy days, pollen often is washed to the ground, which means you are less likely to breathe it.
- Allergies that occur in the spring are often due to tree pollen.
- Allergies that occur in the summer are often due to grass and weed pollen.
- Allergies that occur in the fall are often due to ragweed.
Allergens that can cause perennial allergic rhinitis include:
Sinusitis Encourages Other Health Issues
Body aches is one of the most critical sinus complications in which it becomes highly difficult to focus on work or do other daily chores. As per medical texts or records in journals, it is said that patients with sinusitis have been diagnosed with other several health conditions like depression, arthritis, chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. Many people remain unaware of sinusitis treatments by which one can definitely keep these health problems away from life. Although, it is confirmed that body aches is purely connected to sinus complications. Thus, getting effective treatment from a qualified doctor at its initial stage can help you protecting from such disorder.
How To Prevent Joint Pain Resulting From Allergies
Getting rid of foods and substances one is allergic to is one of the most effective ways to get rid of joint pains from allergic reactions. Identifying the specific foods and substances and taking some allergy tests will be quite helpful. A food test is done by eliminating certain food from the diet for some time then re-introducing it to ascertain the difference in reaction and response by the immune system.
In the case of seasonal allergies, it is crucial to stay clear from exposing yourself to allergens such as cold and dampness
Anti-inflammatory, decongestive, filters, humidifiers and antihistamines are other effective options provided by the doctors to help prevent joint pain resulting from various allergies. Some research experts however point out that such drugs do not provide permanent solutions but rather mask inflammation which is the cause of joint pain. They further note that most of the pain medications cause vitamin and mineral deficiencies such is the case in non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs that cause vitamin C and folic acid deficiency. These two components are crucial in the repair of damaged joints and ligaments thus causing the pain.
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Can Allergic Rhinitis Be Prevented Or Avoided
Allergic rhinitis cannot be prevented. You can help your symptoms by avoiding the things that cause your symptoms, including:
- Keeping windows closed. This is especially important during high-pollen seasons.
- Washing your hands after petting animals.
- Using dust- and mite-proof bedding and mattress covers.
- Wearing glasses outside to protect your eyes.
- Showering before bed to wash off allergens from hair and skin.
You can also avoid things that can make your symptoms worse, such as:
- Aerosol sprays.
- Wood smoke.
Quick Read Sneezing Season Has Begun
- Seasonal allergies involve sneezing, post-nasal drip and itchy, watery eyes.
- COVID-19 symptoms are different: fever, new cough and new shortness of breath.
- Cold symptoms can seem like seasonal allergy symptoms.
- Flu symptoms usually involve fever, chills, and body aches, however.
- Seasonal allergies can be caused by tree, grass or weed pollen.
- They can worsen over time, and you can get new allergies as an adult.
- To lessen symptoms, take non-drowsy antihistamines and use medicated nasal spray.
- If your symptoms get worse, ask about getting allergy shots.
Now that the COVID-19 outbreak is overlapping with spring allergy season, those sniffles or that cough you normally would have dismissed are suddenly more concerning.
Do your symptoms just mean your seasonal allergies are back? Maybe you have a cold or the flu? Or is it possible you caught the new coronavirus?
Read on to learn the differences between them and what you can do to ease your symptoms.
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Can You Get Body Aches With Pollen Allergies
Allergies can produce a variety of symptoms, but one thing everyone affected with allergies experiences is discomfort. People can be allergic to pollen, pet dander, dust, foods and plants. Pollen allergies most commonly cause nasal congestion, a runny nose, sore throat and itchy eyes. Less frequent symptoms include hives, itchy skin, cough, mood changes and body aches.
If you are experiencing serious medical symptoms, seek emergency treatment immediately.
Gluten Is Connected To Many Forms Of Autoimmune Arthritis
Can gluten cause muscle and joint pain? For genetically susceptible individuals, the intestinal damage caused by gluten in combination with an overactive immune system and chronic state of inflammation leads to celiac disease.
Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition that causes your immune system to attack your intestines, which creates even more damage and inflammation. But as I mentioned, the inflammatory effects arent limited to your gut. Which is why celiac disease is associated with many other autoimmune conditions. And several of them cause your immune system to attack your muscles and joints, which causes pain.
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Can Allergies Cause Joint And Muscle Pain
Allergies
Allergic reactions are common occurrences in our lives, and in most instances, their effects and severity differ from one person to another depending on the immunity and other underlying factors.
Allergies often manifest a wide range of symptoms, some of which are more obvious while others may not be so apparent.
For instance, rarely do people associate joint pain, muscle aches, and fatigue with allergies.
Contact Orthobethesda To Schedule Your Appointment
The doctors and therapists at OrthoBethesda are committed to your health and providing top-quality care. Our orthopedic surgeons are board-certified and fellowship-trained within their specialties. They treat a variety of issues, including joint pain due to allergies.
Our occupational, physical and hand therapists focus their time and attention to bring each patient restorative results. We provide a personal rehabilitation setting where your orthopedist can work with you directly and monitor your progress. If youre experiencing joint pain related to allergies, contact us today to schedule your appointment.
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Signs Of Seasonal Allergies
Seasonal allergies are caused by the immune system reacting to pollen from trees, grasses and weeds as if they were harmful to the body. This reaction causes symptoms that can be similar to a cold. Seasonal allergies occur at the same time each year. If your child has allergy symptoms all year long, he or she may be allergic to things in the home, such as dust mites, animals, mold and cockroaches.
Allergies can cause itchy, watery eyes, which aren’t typical signs of a cold or flu.
Other common symptoms of seasonal allergies include:
- Sneezing
- Itchy nose, throat, eyes, and ears
- Nosebleeds
How To Prevent Allergy Fatigue
The best way to prevent allergy fatigue is to find an effective treatment option for your allergies. The first step in managing allergies and preventing symptoms like fatigue is to find out which specific allergens trigger your reactions. After this diagnosis, there are ways to minimize allergies and avoid fatigue. You can minimize allergy fatigue in several ways:
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How Allergies Can Cause Body Aches And Pain
When your immune system reacts to allergens, it triggers a process called an inflammatory response. This inflammatory response, or inflammation, is a vital defense mechanism in your body. For example, when you get injured and start bleeding, the inflammatory response brings cells to the affected area to help clot your blood and form a scab to begin the healing process.
However, when your body produces inflammation in response to an allergenmistakenly thinking it’s a threatit can cause annoyingsometimes life-threateningside effects.
During inflammation, chemicals are released by the immune system that bring white blood cells to the affected area to fight off the harmful substance. Pain can also be part of the inflammatory response. Some of the same chemicals that help fight off allergens also activate nerves in the body that causes pain in joints throughout your body.
How Allergies And Joint Pain Link
Many people actually wonder how the two are related or connected. D. OHollaren also confirms that allergens are responsible for joint pain due to its stimulation of the immune system. Though commonly ignored as a minor condition, allergies can be quite detrimental to ones health and quality of life. Lets have an overview of how joint pain relates with seasonal and food allergies
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Food Allergies And Joint Pain
Seasonal allergies arent the only type of allergies that can contribute to joint pain. Certain foods can cause your body to have an inflammatory response because of a pre-existing condition, a food sensitivity or allergy. Inflammation is what causes the joints to swell and create pain or discomfort. There are two main culprits for food-related joint pain:
- Arthritis
- Food allergy or sensitivity
If you already have arthritis, then you probably have experienced some amount of joint pain in the past. Although there are many different types, arthritis is basically inflammation that affects your joints, causing pain and stiffness. Some patients with this condition experience increased inflammation after eating certain foods. This is especially true of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease that causes chronic joint inflammation, especially in the hands and feet.
Even though arthritis causes your body to be in a constant inflammatory state, its important to be aware of the triggers that can cause bouts of increased inflammation and lead to painful joint symptoms. Some foods known to impact arthritic patients and cause joint pain include:
- Food allergy/sensitivity test
- Elimination diet
- Nutritional deficiency test
Whether it be gluten, dairy or an assortment of other foods, identifying and eliminating these triggers from your diet could help you manage joint pain. An anti-inflammatory menu will also be beneficial to your overall health and well-being.
Allergies Vs Cold Vs Flu Vs Covid
While symptoms for all of these conditions can overlap, there are some key differences.
Allergies can sometimes be confused with the common cold or the flu, but with a cold or the flu you will have a fever and be more fatigued, you can have body pain, not just sneezing and itchy eyes, says Dr. Lahari Rampur, an allergist who sees patients at UW Medical Center Montlake and Harborview Medical Center.
Sneezing, runny nose, post-nasal drip, and itchy, puffy, watery eyes are common seasonal allergy symptoms and can also happen if you get a cold.
Flu typically involves a fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and possibly a headache or cough. With COVID-19, the most common symptoms are a fever, throat pain, or a new cough or new shortness of breath, though runny nose or nasal congestion can also occur. Some people lose their sense of smell or taste or have gastrointestinal symptoms.
If all you have are allergies or a cold, you probably wont get a fever or body aches and if you do, they will be mild. If you do get the flu or COVID-19, youre unlikely to have sinus or eye symptoms.
While seasonal allergies can make someone wheeze or cough, , it will usually be pretty mild.
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Listening To The Symptoms
Right now many people are anxious and concerned with COVID-19 being so widespread, Dr. Siegel says. But I tell parents that while the symptoms of allergies and COVID-19 can be similar, there are some concrete ways to tell which one their child is experiencing so they will know how to treat it.
Here are several differences that can be important clues:
- An illness like COVID-19 causes a system-wide response, while an allergy, which is an overreaction of the immune system in response to exposure to a trigger, is usually more localized. For instance, a child with a flu or COVID-19 may have a fever, body aches, chills, a sore throat, weakness, and respiratory symptoms. Someone with allergies will be more likely to have the symptoms centered on the nose, eyes, and throat, and they usually wont have a fever.
- Allergies cause itchiness: itchy eyes, itchy nose and sneezing, and a tickle in the throat, she says. Itchiness is usually not a symptom of illness.
- COVID-19 doesnt seem to cause much in the way of nasal symptoms, Dr. Siegel says. That means if your child is sneezing a lot, its more likely allergies, a cold, the flu, or another illness that isnt related to COVID-19.
- Children with allergies may also have asthma, which can cause wheezing, coughing, and chest tightness. While many people with COVID-19 also have a cough and chest tightness or difficulty breathing, most of the time this isnt accompanied by wheezing, Dr. Siegel says.
Food Allergies Intolerance And Reactions
If a specific food makes you feel ill, the reaction could be an allergy, an intolerance or some other kind of reaction. Many people label all negative reactions to food as allergies. After all, the end result is the same whether you have an allergy or an intolerance to a certain food: you must avoid the food that triggers your reaction.
However, the reactions inside the body are different, and lead to varying symptoms. The Mayo Clinic reports that the most common food allergy symptoms are:
- Itching and tingling in the mouth
- Dizziness and fainting
- Itchy skin, associates with hives or eczema
- Abdominal discomfort, including diarrhea and vomiting
- Swelling in the mouth, throat or other parts of the body
- Difficulty breathing, including wheezing and nasal congestion
- Anaphylaxis, which is life threatening
As such, you are not likely to experience a food allergy with fever, headache and fatigue. Instead, such symptoms may be signs of intolerances, other underlying disorders, or contaminated food.
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Dont Freak Out If Allergies Get Worse
Due to fluctuations in pollen levels every year, its totally normal if your allergies are mild one year and then worse the next, Rampur says.
But what if youve never had seasonal allergies before and you suddenly get them? This is also common.
First, if youve recently moved to the area, you could develop allergies as your immune system adjusts to the new pollens youre exposed to. Typically how this works is your allergies wont develop until your second or third year in a new place, Ayars says.
If other people in your family have allergies, its possible you will develop them at some point, too. While its more common for allergies to begin developing in childhood or ones teenaged years, Ayars still sees plenty of patients who start getting a new allergy in adulthood.
Another thing that could make you more susceptible to seasonal allergies is having another medical condition linked to your immune system, such as asthma or eczema.
Despite Symptoms Its Not The Flu
COVID-19 is not the flu.
As one of a class of pathogens known as coronaviruses, its actually more closely related to the common cold than the seasonal flu.
However, despite some overlap, the typical symptoms of COVID-19 are more similar to the flu than the common cold .
The new delta variant of COVID-19, however, may have more cold-like symptoms.
In terms of differentiating between flu and COVID-19, it can be almost impossible to distinguish, Dr. Jake Deutsch, co-founder and clinical director of Cure Urgent Care centers and Specialty Infusion in New York. Thats why people are recommended to have flu vaccinations so it can at least minimize the risk of flu in light of everything else.
Fevers, body aches, coughing, sneezing could all be equally attributed to them both, so it really means that if theres a concern for flu, theres a concern for COVID-19, Deutsch said.
If you have a mild case of COVID-19, the flu, or a cold, treatment is geared toward management of symptoms, said Cutler.
Generally, acetaminophen is recommended for fevers, he said. Cough drops and cough syrups can also help keep mucus secretions thinner. If there is associated nasal congestion, antihistamines may be useful.
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Things You Should Know Aboutallergy
- 09 Jul, 2020
Allergies can cause all kinds ofunpleasant, distracting symptoms, from digestive upsets and headachesto respiratory trouble and runny eyes. However, you may also haveexperienced another few hallmark symptoms of allergy problems:fatigue, drowsiness, and mental sluggishness.
If you have had noticeable troublegathering your thoughts, maintaining your alertness, or even stayingawake during the day, you need to understand how your allergies maycreate or aggravate your tiredness. Take heed of the following fourkey points about allergy-related fatigue.
1. Allergens Cause BiochemicallyBased Fatigue
An allergic reaction occurs when yourimmune system goes into battle by mistake, attacking a harmlesssubstance as if it were a virus or other germ. It does this byinstructing mast cells to produce antibodies for release into thebloodstream. These antibodies belong to a category known asimmunoglobulin E.
In addition to immunoglobulin E, theimmune system releases a substance called histamine. When both ofthese substances produce an inflammatory reaction in the body, youmay experience a sense of tiredness alongside other, more obviousallergic symptoms.
2. Allergic Sinusitis Can CauseBrain Fog
Individuals who feel dazed and unableto think well often describe their problem as brain fog. While brainfog may occur in association with many health problems, most notablyfibromyalgia, it can also occur as a side effect of a conditioncalled allergic sinusitis.
Similarities Between Allergies Colds And Flu
Before we discuss the differences, its a good idea to look at the many things they have in common. That typically begins and ends with the symptoms. These symptoms include a wide range of misery, such as:
-
Sniffles
-
Sneezing
-
Sore Throats
The reason you experience all these symptoms with all three maladies is that each one affects the respiratory system. However, if you treat the symptoms with the wrong type of medication, the National Institutes of Health warns, you might get little, if any relief.
In worst case scenarios, you could make the symptoms worse. This is why its so important to know which condition youre suffering from so you can take the right treatment for your condition and get relief. Its also essential to know whether your symptoms affect you and you alone or if you are contagious and could potentially spread your condition to others.
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