How to get relief from spring allergy

Researchers have said that easing your mind of stress might mean less allergy flare-ups in spring.

Allergist Amber Patterson, MD, lead study author and ACAAI member, said that stress can cause several negative effects on the body, including causing more symptoms for allergy sufferers.

She said that their study also found those with more frequent allergy flares also have a greater negative mood, which may be leading to these flares.

Researchers from The Ohio State University analyzed 179 patients for 12 weeks. Thirty-nine percent had more than one allergy flare. This group had higher stress than the group without allergy symptoms. Of this group, 64 percent had more than four flares over two, 14 day periods.

While there were no significant findings between allergy flares and stress on the same day, a number of sufferers reported allergy flares within days of increased daily stress.

Allergy sufferers can help alleviate stress by meditating and breathing deeply, reducing things that may be responsible for stress and learning how to cope better (i.e. not turning to smoking or caffeine which can do more damage than good), asking for help whether from a social worker, family member or colleague, making time for fun and relaxation and adopting a healthy lifestyle by eating right, getting enough sleep and taking care of health conditions.

The study has been published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.