What Are the Symptoms of Severe Allergies?

Allergies can range from benign to life threatening. People might react completely differently to the same allergy, which sometimes makes them difficult to manage. While for some people, they might be a slight nuisance, allergy treatment can be a question of life and death for others. Let’s take a closer look at some of the symptoms of severe allergies and how to treat them.

Severe vs Mild Allergy Symptoms

To understand severe allergy symptoms, it’s important to know mild symptoms as well. Mild allergy symptoms will often be characterized by things like hives, a runny nose, itchy eyes, skin rash, stomach cramping and nausea. These are usually not life threatening even if they might spread to your entire body.

Breathing and Swelling Difficulties

In more severe cases, your immune system might start to overreact and cause swelling in multiple body parts. These can include the throat, tongue, lips, fingers, or toes for instance. Excessive swelling of the tongue and lips could eventually prevent you from breathing or speaking easily by blocking your mouth.

If the swelling extends to your throat, then it could cause some severe issues like shortness of breath, wheezing, trouble swallowing, trouble breathing or asthma. In these cases, steroid treatment or antihistamines might be able to treat these symptoms.

Allergic Asthma

Allergic asthma is caused when small particles located in your lungs start to become inflated, which causes swelling and airflow obstruction.

Allergic asthma is treated just like regular asthma. A rescue inhaler will usually be used for this type of asthma. It will allow your airways to expand, which will facilitate airflow to your lungs. However, in anaphylaxis cases, inhalers won’t be effective since its contents won’t be able to reach the lungs.

Anaphylaxis

Anaphylaxis is one of the most serious symptoms of severe allergy. This is when the throat becomes so swollen that it completely blocks airflow. Your blood pressure may start to drop, and your heartbeat can become weak. And if it lasts long enough, then you could even become unconscious.

If you happen to be suffering with allergies, only an allergist can help you evaluate your symptoms and give you the proper course of action in case of emergency. Contact us today to schedule an appointment with the best allergist in New York.