At times when your allergen exposure is greatest, you may find that avoiding or combating the non-allergic factors will lighten your allergic load enough to ease your symptoms. The medications most often used to help control allergy symptoms are antihistamines and decongestants. Antihistamines block the effects of histamine, and help relieve sneezing, stop itching, and dry excess secretions. The most common side effect is drowsiness, although new antihistamines are available which avoid this problem. Commonly, antihistamines tolerance occurs after prolonged regular treatment with any one preparation, a problem easily solved by a change to an antihistamine of a different chemical group.
Decongestants reduce swelling of congested tissues.
The most common side effect of decongestants is jitteriness and insomnia. A combination of an antihistamine and a decongestant is usually given, to get the action of both and smooth out the possible side effects. Nasalcrom is a special nasal spray that is very helpful for allergic patients. It not only relieves allergic symptoms when used regularly during a period of allergen exposure, but protects from symptoms when used before such exposure. These are very potent, but should be safe when administered under the supervision of a competent specialist.