One way of preventing allergies is to use allergy products designed to help you avoid allergens found in our environment. Check below for a list of our top picks:

Air Filters or Purifiers

When we think of air pollution, we usually associate it with outdoor air. However, a growing number of allergic reactions may also be due to certain airborne allergens in the home. In fact, in 1990, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ranked indoor air pollution as “a high priority health risk.”

Allergy products such as air filters and air purifiers will greatly help in reducing allergens that can cause asthma or asthma-like symptoms, such as difficulty in breathing, nasal congestion, respiratory swelling, and the like.

There are five basic types of air-related allergy products:

Mechanical filters
Electronic filters
Hybrid filters
Gas phase filters
Ozone generators

Carpet Cleaners

Indoor allergens are not only found in the air, but in every surface. Carpets, especially if you keep pets, are very conducive to allergens such as dust mites and animal danders, which are dry cells shed from the skin of your pets.

One good allergy product is a carpet cleaner. Reduce you exposure to indoor allergens by keeping your carpet clean and free from particles that you are allergic to.

Home Water Treatment Systems

One of the things that we often take for granted is water. When we turn on the tap, we expect water that is clean, safe and suitable for household tasks. In truth, no water is 100% pure. All water contains contaminants such as minerals, gases, bacteria, metals, and chemicals. But while many of these contaminants are harmless, there are some that may adversely affect your health and in some people, cause allergic reactions.

An allergy product designed to decrease your exposure to contaminated water is a home water treatment system. With this allergy product, you can control water quality problems, such as hardness, corrosivity, foaming, staining or bad tastes, smell or color.

Here is a list of possible treatment and conditioning methods for your home water:

Mechanical or sedimentation filtration
Activated carbon filtration
Oxidation filtration
Neutralizing filtration
Reverse osmosis or membrane filtration
Distillation
Ultra-violet treatment
Water softener or cation exchange
Chlorination disinfection

When you have an allergic reaction after eating certain types of food, it means your immune system is responding to the substance perceived by the body as a harmful allergen. Massive amounts of antibodies are produced, binding with both the allergens and mast cells (a certain type of cell containing chemicals). When the antibodies come into contact with these mast cells, they alter the structure of its membranes, causing the various chemicals inside to leak out. One of the chemicals is histamine, which is a major player in inflammation of surrounding tissue.

The symptoms of food allergy could range from mildly inconvenient to uncomfortable to complete collapse of the body, a condition known as anaphylaxis. Many people have died or have been brought to emergency rooms as a result of anaphylaxis brought about by violent allergic reactions to certain types of food.

Common signs of food allergy include the following:

Tingling sensation in the mouth
Swelling of the tongue and the throat
Difficulty breathing
Hives
Vomiting
Abdominal cramps
Diarrhea
Drop in blood pressure
Loss of consciousness
Death (extreme cases)

Typically, these symptoms appear within minutes or two hours after the person has eaten the food he or she is allergic to.

When talking about treatment for food allergy, the best method is avoidance. If you’re allergic to certain types of food, then you ought to practice strict avoidance of these foods. Food allergy is largely symptomatic, which means that whatever medications or treatment methods are available, they are usually to prevent the onset or for treatment of the symptoms.

Epinephrine, also called “adrenaline,” is the medication of choice for controlling severe reactions.

While any food can cause allergies, 90% of all food allergic reactions are caused by:

Peanut
Egg
Milk
Shellfish
Wheat
Treenuts
Soy
Fish

Peanut food allergy is one of the most common, serious, and potentially fatal food allergies. In a survey conducted by the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, the prevalence of peanut allergy in both adults and children alike has doubled up over a period of five years. Peanuts are actually legumes but it is probably unnecessary to eliminate other legumes unless there is good reason to suspect that they cause problems or your doctor tells you to avoid them.

Egg-related food allergy is often mild. However, there are rare cases where egg can trigger anaphylaxis. Food labels must be thoroughly scrutinized for products containing egg or albumen. It should also be noted that well-cooked eggs (as in cakes) are generally harmless. But raw and lightly cooked eggs can cause allergic reactions.

How do skin allergies work?

When the immune system encounters a substance that can potentially cause disease, it produces antibodies called IgG or immunoglobulin G and IgM or immunoglobulin M. With the production of these antibodies, the immune system now becomes sensitized and able to neutralize the substance, helping you to recover from the disease after a few days.

As time goes, your now sensitized immune system is ready to produce large amounts of antibodies rapidly the next time it encounters the same substance. This rapid production of antibodies makes you able to recover from the disease quickly, so that it’s possible you won’t even suffer any symptoms.

With skin allergies, on the other hand, the situation is a little different. When an allergen – for instance, a cosmetic ingredient – comes into contact with your skin for the first time, your immune system will also produce antibodies, only this time, instead of IgG and IgM, it produces IgE or immunoglobulin E.

The IgE will also bind itself with the cosmetic allergen and does the same thing it did with any normally harmful substance, prompting the sensitization process. Without this sensitization, no skin allergies occur.

Because the immune system has already been sensitized to the cosmetic allergen, the next time you get exposed to it, your body mass produces IgE, which then attach themselves to the allergens, and eventually the mast cells. The mast cells are a type of cell containing many chemicals that can cause inflammation, foremost among them is histamine. The IgE causes the mast cells to release these chemicals to surrounding tissue, causing inflammation, redness (erythema), and itching (pruritis) in the surface of the skin. The reaction that is seen on the skin surface is called a wheal or a hive and is considered as one of the common symptoms of skin allergies.

Types of Skin Allergies

There are three main types of skin allergies: food allergy, contact dermatitis, and atopy or allegic inhaled dermatitis. Skin allergies can be caused by an allergic reaction to ingredients or preservatives in food, such as horse meat, beef, pork, eggs, fish, chicken, corn, soy, preservatives and dyes, dairy products, poultry products, etc.

Contact dermatitis is a type of skin allergies caused by allergens coming into direct contact with the skin. Common among these allergen types are poison ivy and ragweed. Ragweed can also be a cause of inhaled skin allergies, as well as, pollen, house dust, dust mites, mold, animal dander, feathers, grasses, trees, and shrubs.

But what exactly is sinusitis and how is it related to allergy? Are there ways for you to get allergy and sinus relief?

Read below for a brief discussion on the two conditions.

What is Sinusitis?

Sinusitis is an inflammation of the sinuses. Your sinuses are those hollow areas somewhere under the bridge of your nose where the air you breathe passes through. With the onset of a bacterial infection, your sinuses get irritated, causing an inflammation that can last from a few days to longer than three months.

If your sinusitis is the longer-lasting type, then the condition is chronic. Chronic sinusitis is often preceded by a cold, flu, or allergy attack, which inflames the sinus membranes and blocks the sinuses’ drainage openings. As mucus collects, because of the blockage, bacteria find themselves good ground for breeding.

What is allergy?

An allergy is the result of a hypersensitive immune system. When a foreign substance enters the body, the immune system thinks that it is harmful and so starts building up antibodies to combat it. So, the next time the same substance is granted entrance, the body will have a way to “protect” itself. The problem with an allergic reaction is that the immune system produces antibodies en masse, often far too much than what is really required. As a result, the body reacts, thus causing the symptoms of allergies, such as nasal congestion, respiratory swelling, itches, rashes, difficulty breathing, and even fatal anaphylaxis.

The Symptoms

The symptoms of both sinusitis and allergy are often similar. That’s why diagnosis of either condition can be quite tricky. Sinusitis, however, is more often accompanied by facial pressure or pain, particularly when bending over, thick yellow or green mucus rather than clear or whitish mucus, and post-nasal drip, particularly at night, leading to a sore throat. In addition, chronic sinusitis can last longer than allergic reactions. For more information, check with your ENT (Ear-Nose-Throat) doctor.

Allergy and Sinus Relief

Because allergy and sinusitis have more or less the same symptoms, the same treatment can be used for both. The purpose of allergy and sinus relief often is not to treat the condition itself but to alleviate the symptoms. Below are our top picks of products that offer allergy and sinus relief:

Nasal/Sinus Irrigation Systems

If you’re looking for a therapeutic measure to provide you with allergy and sinus relief, then try nasal/sinus irrigation systems. They are soothing, drug-free device designed to relieve symptoms caused by sinus infections, allergies, and even the common cold. This allergy and sinus relief device helps reduce:

Post nasal drip
Cough
Congestion
Sinus headaches
Irritated nasal passages

Nasal Spray