Last week, we talked about how to break away from treating allergy symptoms and instead how to treat the cause with adequate nutrition. Allergy medications exist to suppress symptoms, not treat the cause. Now, these medications are able to curb your symptoms but there’s a long-term price to pay.
Allergy medications come with side effects like dry mouth, drowsiness, nausea, blurred vision, and even dizziness. These don’t seem to mean much to us so long as we can get the itching and sneezing to stop, and be able to breathe again. What research has shown us is these side effects are merely precursors to the long-term side effects.
Research
Shelly Gray of the Group Health Research Institute from University of Washington helmed a study on the long-term use of these types of medications. Her team has determined that anticholinergics work by blocking acetylcholine, a special neurochemical responsible for the movement and transport of messages.
Over three thousand senior adults were followed for more than seven years for this study. Some of these adults took 4 milligrams of diphenhydramine or Benadryl for their allergies or regular sleep issues. The study team had determined that occasional use among these elders for allergy drugs did not significantly affect their memory problems.1 Instead, those who have accumulated exposure of allergy drugs and antihistamines were much more likely to experience long-term problems, like dementia and Alzheimer’s. Gray has warned that these medications carry risks to your nervous system and brain health.
Antihistamines & Immune Function
One lesson we’re constantly teaching people at OHS is when you suffer from any kind of ailment, you aren’t medication deficient; you’re nutrient deficient in some way. When allergies strike, you’re not antihistamine-deficient; you’re running low on digestive enzymes and such. Still, we all too often treat our ailing bodies in ways that shut down the natural order of things. For example, antihistamine medications send chemicals that suppress histamine production in order to cull your symptoms.
Does this mean your allergies are cured? Not by a long shot. Your body is simply no longer able to react to allergens, much less anything else invading your body. Allergy medications do more than suppress allergies. They suppress your immune function as well, making you particularly susceptible to infections in areas like your sinuses and throat. That wasn’t originally part of the bargain, now, was it?
More Research, More Potential Risks
Antihistamines have come in several incarnations, each generation trying to solve the dangers their predecessors posed. The latest generation has yet to be proven to be just as dangerous; however, research has yet to prove they’re any safer either. So far, the latest studies and testing show they can cause impaired motor function, dizziness, dry mouth and sinuses, constipation, liver failure, and worsening of glaucoma. In other words, we can safely deduce that antihistamines affect your sinuses as well as your digestive system, eyes, brain, bladder, etc.2 We just have yet to understand why or how exactly.
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283758657_Long-term_antihistamine_therapy_revisited
- https://id.elsevier.com/ACW/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fsecure.jbs.elsevierhealth.com%2Faction%2FconsumeSsoCookie%3FredirectUri%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.jacionline.org%252Faction%252FconsumeSharedSessionAction%253FJSESSIONID%253DaaaGggNF3r_XO7qCGmBhw%2526MAID%253DY0L16jT5kS0fCK6lOUjbrw%25253D%25253D%2526SERVER%253DWZ6myaEXBLGZpQFlLdJmhw%25253D%25253D%2526ORIGIN%253D228536337%2526RD%253DRD%26code%3Dymai-site