Allergies To Pets

In this article we're going to discuss one of the most annoying kinds of allergies that there is, especially for us animal lovers - allergies to pets and what can be done to reduce the allergens produced by pets.

The sad fact is that 10 to 15% of all the people in the world suffer from some kind of allergy to animals, which can make owning a pet not only annoying but potentially dangerous if the allergy is severe enough.  Cat allergies are actually twice as common as dog allergies.  The body's reaction to the animals is caused by a certain protein found in the animal's saliva, urine or dander.  People aren't really allergic to the pet's fur but to the allergen that sticks to the fur, the carpeting or the furniture; basically anywhere your pet has been.  Also, these microscopic flakes of dander travel through the air.  As a matter of fact, studies show that these allergens can stay in the air even 3 years after an animal has actually been in the home.

Many people ask if there are any breeds of animals that people are not allergic to.  The answer is, since all animals have dead skin there are no non allergic breeds.  People may be more tolerant of certain breeds of dogs than others but there is no such thing as 100% non allergic.  All animals produce some amount of allergen, even if it is a small amount.  The allergic symptoms themselves build over time after handling or being near an animal, with the peak time being around 12 hours after.  Also, as the pet spends more time living in the person's home the allergens begin to accumulate and a person who showed no symptoms when handling the pet at the store when buying it will start to show symptoms after it has been home for a while, usually within a day.

So what's the answer for people who want to have a pet but are allergic?  What can they do in order to have a pet?  Unfortunately, the only thing you can do is try to reduce your exposure to the allergens.  You're not going to be able to get rid of them completely.  One thing you can do to try to prevent the accumulation of allergens is to cover your furniture with plastic mattresses and pillow covers.  Replace your carpeting with hard wooden floors and washable throw rugs.  Clean the house as often as you can.  Make sure you vacuum with a cleaner that has a HEPA filter otherwise allergens are just going to end up getting spread into the air.  Your pet should be kept out of your bedroom completely.  This may be hard for a real pet lover but it is essential.  When you brush your pet, wear a face mask.  Then change your clothes immediately afterward.  Unfortunately, the success rate of allergy shots and other treatments for pet allergies is only about 50%.  Currently however, a vaccine for people allergic to cats is being tested.  This may be a major breakthrough in the future.

Until then, there really isn't much more you can do.  If your allergies are severe it is probably best to stick with a fish for a pet.

Allergies - Antihistamines and How They Work

In this article we're going to discuss probably the most common form of treatment for allergy sufferers; the use of antihistamines, what they are and how they work in the body to rid people of their allergy symptoms.

The first question most people ask about antihistamines is what they are. The reason is because when they see these little wonder pills advertised they are seeing the brand name and not what the pill actually is. The most popular brand names of antihistamines are Clarityn, Zyrtec, Allegra and Benadryl. There are plenty more though. The antihistamine industry is a multi billion dollar a year industry because of all the allergy sufferers but this still doesn't tell us what an antihistamine is.

The best way to explain what an antihistamine is and what it does is to actually break the word down. Antihistamine is composed of two words, anti and histamine. Anti means to be against something or act against something. Which leaves us with what a histamine is. A histamine is something that your body produces in defense to an attack of allergens. It is these histamines that bring on the terrible symptoms of sneezing, itching, watery eyes, etc. that we suffer from when we are attacked by these allergens. Thus, an antihistamine is something that works against the histamines that our body produces.

Your common antihistamine comes in a little pill. How it actually works is quite amazing. What these pills do is release a chemical in our body that is very similar to and looks like a histamine to our body. These look-alike histamines make our body think that we basically have enough of these and keep the receptors in our body from working against them. In other words they stop the histamines in our body from working, thus relieving the symptoms.

What most people don't know is that this is not the only function of histamines. They also play a very important role in the brain, keeping us attentive, alert and awake. So, if we stopped all of the histamines in the body from working we would basically fall asleep. This can be especially dangerous when driving a car or operating heavy machinery and in fact, this is exactly what happens when we take old antihistamines. So if you have any of these laying around in your home, please get rid of them and do not take them. Those expiration dates on antihistamines are there for a reason.

The good news is, newer forms of antihistamines have a much better effect on your allergies with less effect on your brain. How this is accomplished is actually very simple. Some medicines barely make it into the brain from the blood. This is actually not a good thing with antibiotics for brain infections. But when research workers figured this out they started to make antihistamines that also had the same properties as antibiotics, thus making it so that very little of the drug makes its way to the brain. If you read most antihistamine labels today it will say right on it, "non drowsy".

In our next article in this series we'll discuss the safety concerns of antihistamines.