Conquer Your Allergies with Immunotherapy

If you have allergies, the watery eyes and sneezing are annoying, but the lethargy and fatigue are worse. While seasonal allergies can make life miserable, some allergies are life-threatening, such as bee stings that can cause difficulty breathing and require emergency care.

Immunotherapy can help. 

If you’ve heard of allergy shots, you’re familiar with immunotherapy; it works by gradually exposing you to small amounts of pollen, pet dander, or other allergens so your body works up a tolerance and learns how to handle them.

You may be a good candidate for immunotherapy if you’ve found antihistamines and nasal sprays ineffective. 

Our expert team at Copperfield Family Clinic in Houston, Texas, offers allergy testing and immunotherapy. To determine if you’re a good candidate for immunotherapy, we discuss your medical history and conduct a skin, blood, or lung functioning test to identify your allergens. Once we’ve narrowed it down, we recommend a course of treatment.

What types of allergies can benefit from immunotherapy? 

Over 19 million adults in the U.S. have hay fever, while others are allergic to pet dander, food, dust, or other allergens. If you’re one of them, you’re no stranger to common allergy symptoms like a runny nose, sneezing, congestion, watery eyes, or hives. If OTC and prescription medications don’t help, you’re a good candidate for immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy also eases allergic asthma symptoms and may even help kids with nasal allergies asthma from developing. 

If insect stings threaten your life, immunotherapy can be a game-changer. Although immunotherapy doesn’t cure your allergies, it can take the edge off most sources of serious allergic reactions and, in many cases, eliminate the symptoms almost completely.

What you can expect during immunotherapy treatment 

Treatment therapy involves multiple injections in your upper arm, usually delivered weekly over several months. Each injection dosage gradually increases until your allergy symptoms lessen. Once your symptoms improve, this becomes your “maintenance dosage,” and we taper your injections to once or twice a month to maintain your new health baseline.

After each injection, you remain in the office for 30 minutes for observation so we can watch for adverse reactions. Mild swelling and itching at the injection sites are normal and usually go away within a few hours. On rare occasions, the injection may cause you to break out in hives or have difficulty breathing. If this happens, contact us right away.

Immunotherapy can be an effective long-term allergy treatment, though it can take three months or more to reach the maintenance phase. It can also take several months to a year before you see results in reduced allergy symptoms. Immunotherapy can be highly effective if you commit to the treatment process. 

For some patients, immunotherapy means they eventually don’t need injections and no longer feel allergy symptoms. Others may taper off the allergy shots but still need a reboot every so often. 

Call 281-789-6477 or use our online scheduler to book your Copperfield Family Clinic visit in Houston, Texas, and find out if you’re a good candidate for immunotherapy.