LifeCare Chiropractic

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immunotherapy

7 Ways Drops for Allergies Shine Again: Asthma

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This is not the first time I’ve written about the wonders of drops for allergies for different conditions. But drops for asthma…this is new…

A large chunk of the population deals with the discomfort and limitations of allergies and asthma here in the US.  This allergy season seems to have hit patients particularly hard.  Worse, rarely do I see that commonly used medications like Advair, Allegra and Zyrtec do more than make life a little easier.  Resolution or complete control is not the norm.

While the medications to treat allergies and asthma may be slightly different, I have always lumped them together because the immune system imbalance is the same (Th2 dominance, in case you’re curious).  This also means that the early-life risk factors are similar, such as:

  • Antibiotic use
  • C-section birth
  • Formula feeding instead of breastfeeding
  • Immunizations

When asked what organ plays a critical role in allergies and asthma, few would answer that it is the gut that drives these types of problems.

Why the gut?  Because 2/3 of the immune system is centered around the gut; so designed because the vast majority of foreign material that you are exposed to comes from the stuff you shove in your mouth.

So what if the stuff you were putting into your mouth was very carefully crafted to trick the immune system around your gut into behaving the way it is supposed to?  Sounds pretty cool, right? That is the goal of sublingual immunotherapy, otherwise known as drops for allergies.

This approach to allergies here in the United States, however, lags far behind Europe.  Here in the states, these drops are off-label use because the FDA has not approved its use.  But certainly not for lack of research, as we can see from this particular review.

Researchers looked at the data on drops for allergies and asthma across 63 studies with over 5100 participants total.  What did they find?

  1. Strong evidence supports that sublingual immunotherapy improves asthma symptoms, with 8/13 studies showing 40% improvement.
  2. Moderate evidence supports that drops for allergies decrease rhinitis or rhinoconjunctivitis symptoms, with 9/36 studies showing greater than 40% improvement.
  3. Medication use for asthma and allergies decreased by more than 40% in 16/41 studies.
  4. Moderate evidence found the drops improve conjunctivitis symptoms (13 studies).
  5. Evidence found that drops improved the combined symptom and medication scores (20 studies).
  6. Evidence found that disease-specific quality of life was improved (8 studies).
  7. Local reactions were frequent, but severe allergic reactions were not reported.

Overall, I would have to say that the FDA is WAY behind Europe on this one. Sadly, many allergists dismiss drops for allergies as not having any research to support its use.  You have to be avoiding an awful lot of medical literature to not notice 63 studies IN YOUR FIELD that deal with this approach.

Maybe it’s time to find a new allergist (luckily for those of you in our clinic’s area, we offer drops for allergies).

Dust Mite Allergy? Drops for Allergies Shines Again

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With food allergies, you can avoid offending foods. What about environmental allergies? Kind of hard to live in a bubble. Good thing there are drops for allergies.

This is not the first time I have addressed this option for allergy sufferers.  Basically, the use of drops under the tongue (sublingual) has been shown to be consistently effective at helping to manage allergies.  I have addressed this in detail in a previous post that can be read by clicking here.

However, there has been a major weakness in many of previous studies that I have reviewed.

They are designed as a one-allergen type of approach.  Basically, in setting up the studies, researchers picked a single allergen (such as peanuts) and provided the treatment using the sublingual drops for allergies focused on a single allergen.  In real life, people are rarely allergic to one single thing.  Once the immune system gets pissed off, it starts firing off at multiple allergens.  Rarely is it a single allergen.

Despite this, the results of these studies have been pretty solid.  So what happens when a research study is set up to treat for more than one allergen?  Turns out we have an answer in this particular study.

Researchers treated for not one, but TWO types of dust mites with sublingual drops for allergies in a group of seniors aged 60-75.  Here’s the specifics:

  • The trial lasted 3 years.
  • The total nasal symptom score decreased by 44% in the active group and 6% in the placebo group (Tweet this).
  • In the group that got the drops for allergies, the total medication score dropped 51%.
  • There were no systemic adverse reactions during the study.

These are pretty good results for an approach as simple as sublingual immunotherapy with no real incidence of adverse reactions.  While I highlighted the fact that this study used 2 different allergens, there are practitioners out there using sublingual immunotherapy that treat for many more allergens in the drops for allergies.  The more that are used, the greater the chance of toning down the entire immune response and really helping to make the patient feel better.

Have you tried sublingual immunotherapy before or currently?  If so, how does the response compared to other methods you have tried in the past?

HIGH DOSE THERAPY EFFECTS THE QUALITY OF PATIENT’S LIFE – (08-28-06)

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Effects of high-dose sublingual immunotherapy on quality of life in patients with seasonal asthma: a pilot study

It’s funny that with the increasing amount of studies being done on this very safe and effective approach to allergies, that it’s still relatively unheard of. I’ve got a few docs in my area that I refer patients out to and the response is usually quite positive.

One thing I do love is that this therapy is actually looking at FIXING the problem, not just suppressing the immune response. About 2/3 of our immune system is centered around the GI tract and this immune group has the ability to turn up or turn down the immune response in the rest of the body.

So, give these immune cells a small amount of antigen, and there is a chance that they will send a signal out to the rest of the immune system that this molecule is “ok” and will tone down our response to that molecule.

Read entire article here