What can I do at home to relieve symptoms of allergic conjunctivitis?

The first thing you should do is avoid the allergen. At home you should apply cool compresses to your eyes several times a day. 


If your conjunctivitis is from a bacteria or a virus, then you may need to apply a warm compress. If only one eye is affected, try not to use the same cloth or touch the unaffected eye. Conjunctivitis can easily spread to the other eye.
There are many over the counter eye drops that can help relieve the eye redness and irritation. Some of these drops contain anti histamines that can help reduce the tearing and the scratchy feeling in the eye.


If you wear contact lenses, you must stop wearing them until the eye symptoms have disappeared. In most cases, you may need to throw away your disposable contact lenses as well as the cleaning solutions and Vial. If your contact lenses are not disposable, they should be cleaned with a special solution before re-use

How should I treat my allergic conjunctivitis?

There are a number of anti allergy eye drops available for allergic conjunctivitis. The most common medications used to treat allergic conjunctivitis are the anti histamines. 


In addition, most people with recurrent allergic conjunctivitis also require decongestants, steroids and some type of non anti inflammatory drugs. However the best way to treat your allergic conjunctivitis is to prevent it in the first place. This means avoiding whatever is causing your allergy. 


Unfortunately, there is no cure for this very annoying problem. The majority of drugs either do not work or have terrible side effects. You may want to try Intal or Zafirlukast, which are prescription medications used to prevent allergic attacks.

Can one develop allergy to an IUD?

Sure, some women do develop an allergy to an IUD, but the allergy is usually to the copper, which is part of the device. To check for copper allergy one can have a simple skin test at the doctor’s office. Of if, you want to save money, just apply a piece of copper jewelry on your skin for a few days and see what happens. In most cases, if you are allergic, the skin will go red and will become itchy. Today, there are IUDs available that do not contain copper.

Transmitting peanut allergy during pregnancy!

Why so many children are developing peanut allergy has become a mystery. At least 6% of children under the age of 3 suffer from some type of food allergy. Approximately 2% of these children are allergic to peanuts. What has become worrisome is that the numbers of children with peanut allergies has grown exponentially in the last 2 decades. How young children become sensitized to peanuts so early and what is the source of this allergy are two questions that have never been adequately answered. 

Now there is some evidence that perhaps the allergy to peanut may have its roots in pregnancy. A recent study led by Dr Scott Sicherer at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York suggests that that there is a strong link between pregnancy and this common skin disorder. Dr Sicherer discovered that infants, who had signs of allergies to milk and egg at a young age, also had higher levels of antibodies to peanuts especially when the mother ate many peanuts during pregnancy.

Dr Sicherer and his group focused on babies who reacted to milk and eggs because these children are also likely to have peanut allergy.

Dr Sicherer did point out that just having high levels of antibody to peanuts does not directly suggest allergy to peanuts but it is strong sign that there is a greater risk of developing allergy in the near future.

This study has now opened up a Pandora’s Box. Should pregnant mothers now watch their diet to reduce the risk of allergies in their children?

In the past the America Academy of Pediatrics has been fluctuating in its advice for mothers-to-be regarding food allergies and diet. Most pediatric physicians have advised women with a history of food allergies to avoid highly allergenic foods such as peanuts during pregnancy. This belief is based on the hypothesis that if the mothers eat less allergenic foods, the infant will have a reduced chance of developing allergies to foods.

So should mothers start stop eating peanut? Dr Sicherer says not yet because there have been no follow up studies on these infants to determine if they actually develop allergies to peanut. There are also some experts who believe that the increased allergies may be related to the environment and not to the peanuts as such. Some allergy experts believe that  newborns are now begin exposed to much more cleaner environments after birth and somehow the body reacts more intensely to foreign protein such as food under the erroneous mistaken that these are harmful toxins.

To further complicate matters there is also evidence that suggests that gradually exposing peanut allergic infants to increasing amounts of peanuts may be a way to desensitize them. So for the moment, there is no solid evidence to advise mothers one way or the other about eating peanuts. However, common sense suggests that one should be cautious about exposing the fetus to allergenic foods, especially if there is a family history.

Finally a pill for hay fever?

A recent study from England shows that a pill may substitute for allergy shots in people who want to stop allergies.

The drug called Grazax is prescription medication in Europe and is approved for the treatment of allergies to grass pollen

Grazax is an alternative to allergy shots. Allergy shots or immunotherapy are often given to people whose medications do not control symptoms. The aim of allergy shots is to desensitize the immune system to the allergen. The allergen shots are given in a series for a few months. The shots do not cure the allergy but lessen the symptoms. Most people do not like the allergy shots because of the expense, inconvenience and discomfort. In the USA, many physicians make a living out of giving patients unnecessary allergy shots. Overall less than 10% of individuals benefit from these shots.

Grazax contains a tiny amount of grass pollen extract and is placed underneath the tongue. The drug is taken daily for several months and needs to be continued for several years.

In the British study, researchers noticed that individuals who took Grazax had fewer hay fever symptoms and needed to use less anti histamines or other allergy medications. The only side effects were itching, throat irritation and swelling around the mouth in 15 percent of patients.

So is Grazax the panacea for individuals who have hay fever?

Absolutely NOT. Read below

Final point: the researchers in the above had received funding from the maker of the pill and this makes all the results useless. Lately it has become clear that the majority of scientists who perform research studies and are paid by the pharmaceutical companies manufacturing the pill and as always the results are always positive. Pharmaceutical companies have in recent years been found guilty of paying scientists who never report any negative results and make it sound that the drug is excellent. In fact more data indicate that most drug company sponsored research is bogus.

So for the time being, if you have allergy, stick to the anti histamines and bear with the symptoms.