Cope with Allergies

One of the best things you can do is to avoid the things that cause your allergies. You may need to clean your house often to get rid of dust, animal dander, or molds. Or you may need to stay indoors when pollen counts are high.
Unless you have another health problem, such as asthma, you may be able to treat your symptoms at home with medicines you can buy without a prescription. If you do have another problem, talk to your doctor first. Others who also should talk to their doctor before starting self-treatment include older adults, children, and women who are pregnant or breast-feeding.

If home treatments do not help or the over-the-counter medicines make you sleepy or cause other side effects that bother you, then your doctor can prescribe medicines. These medicines can relieve your allergy symptoms with fewer side effects than over-the-counter medicines.

Finding the treatment that works best for you may take a little time. You may need to try several medicines before you find the one that works for you.

If your allergies bother you a lot and you cannot avoid the things you are allergic to, you and your doctor can decide if you should get allergy shots (immunotherapy) to help control your symptoms. For allergy shots to work, you need to know what you are allergic to.