Want Relief From Your Allergies? Immunotherapy Shots Might Make Sense For You
Your nose is stuffy. Your eyes are swollen. Your throat is sore, and your senses of smell and taste are shot. It’s your seasonal allergies — they’re acting up again, and your antihistamines aren’t cutting it.
Allergy immunotherapy injections, or allergy shots, can reduce your allergic sensitivity, and thus your allergic symptoms, to certain substances, including airborne and insect allergens. In some cases, they can cause a reduction in your sensitivity and symptoms that sticks around for years after you stop the shots themselves. But they certainly aren’t for all forms of allergies, or for all allergy sufferers. With that in mind, here’s how allergy shots work, and how to tell if they might make sense for you.
Read More: Everything to Know About Allergies
What Are Allergy Shots?
Clinicians have administered immunotherapy injections for over a century, exposing patients to specific allergens or sets of allergens to reduce the reactivity of their immune systems, limiting symptoms like sneezing, coughing, and itching over time.
Similar to vaccines, the shots include a small dose of an allergen, sometimes several allergens, introduced into your system in increasing amounts, that slowly desensitizes you by increasing your immune system’s tolerance. For some patients, they’re a powerful tool for improving quality of life, albeit a time-consuming and a potentially costly one.
The Stages of Allergy Shots
To start your allergy shots, you’ll have to visit an allergist. First, they’ll test your skin or blood to identify your allergies; then, they’ll administer your allergy shots in two separate stages, according to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI).
In the first stage, or the “build-up stage,” patients tend to receive injections with increasing doses of allergens around once or twice a week for a period of three to six months. Meanwhile, in the second stage, the “maintenance stage,” they tend to receive injections with the same dose of allergens around once or twice a month for a period of three to five years.
Though the amount of allergens administered in the maintenance stage is consistent from week to week, it differs from patient to patient. After any one injection, redness, itchiness, and swelling can occur, sometimes immediately after treatment. In some cases, shots can cause allergy symptoms such as sneezing or stuffiness, and in rare cases (only around 1 in 160,000 injection visits), they can cause life-threatening reactions like anaphylactic shock, involving tightness and swelling in the throat and chest.
Since these severe reactions are almost always immediate, your allergist will ask you to stay in their office for around 30 minutes after the administration of the shots. It’s an important precaution, and one to always observe, allowing your clinicians to monitor your responses and intervene if necessary.
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The Success of Allergy Shots
The shots themselves are available in the U.S. for adults and children over the age of five, and only for airborne- or insect-allergy patients. In fact, the treatment is only approved for seasonal and indoor allergens, including pet dander, pollens, molds, and mites, as well as insect allergens, like those involved in bee, wasp, and hornet stings. As of now, immunotherapy injections for food and medication allergies aren’t offered, though other treatments are.
The results can change according to the type and severity of a patient’s allergies, and to the aggressiveness of the treatment. For instance, the treatment tends to be a bit shorter for patients with airborne allergies and a bit more successful for patients with insect allergies. Meanwhile, patients with more severe symptoms often see more symptoms after treatment.
Still, around 80 percent of people with airborne allergies, and 90 percent of people with insect allergies, see some sort of reduction in their allergy symptoms, though it may require as many as 12 months of maintenance shots to see signs of symptom reduction.
Ultimately, whether allergy shots are worth it for you is something to consider with a clinician, who can assist you with weighing the severity of your allergy symptoms against the success of your current symptom-management strategies. If you opt to get started with injections, go ahead and get your arms ready — a whole lot of shots will be coming their way.
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