How are allergies treated?

Usually, the best way to treat an allergy is to avoid contact with the thing that triggers your reaction.

There are also medicines which help to make your symptoms better. A lot of these can be bought from a pharmacy without a prescription, but it’s best to talk to your doctor or pharmacist about which medicine he or she thinks is best for you.

Some of the medicines your doctor might recommend are:

• anti-histamines
• decongestant tablets
• nose sprays
• eye drops
• tablets called leukotriene receptor antagonists.

A different kind of treatment is called hyposensitisation (also called immunotherapy). This involves your doctor slowly giving you more and more contact with the thing you’re allergic to so that your immune system gets used to it. It’s important that your doctor is with you when this type of treatment is done.

If your doctor thinks you might have a more serious allergy that could lead to anaphylaxis, you might be given a special pen for injecting yourself with adrenaline in the case of an emergency. Your doctor will talk to you about how to use this.