An absolute cure for allergies

KOCHI: Do you start sneezing at the sight of dust or break into hives after having shellfish? Normally one tends to fight the attack by popping a pill, mostly an anti-allergic one that offers temporary relief. Have you ever thought if there could be a permanent solution for allergy related ailments. If no, Dr Bikku Babu, allergy specialist and immunologist, says there is. “What we do normally is temporary symptomatic treatment. We use medicines, nasal sprays and inhalers to combat the symptoms, but we hardly care about the cause and treat it correctly. None of them are going to offer a permanent solution to the problem. When you stop medication the symptoms will attack you back,” he says. He says we need to tackle the problem in the right way instead of opting for temporary cures.  “You should find the cause of the allergy and treat the cause instead of taking anti-allergic drugs.  A normal blood test will not help, you need to run the particular allergy test,” he says. Avoidance of the allergens is generally recommended to ward off allergies. “You can keep away from visible and identifiable allergens like pets and food. But it’s not possible to avoid dust mites and pollens. That’s where the treatment steps in,” says the doctor. Possibly very few of us know about a treatment called ‘allergen immuno therapy’, but the doctor considers it as the most effective and time-tested remedial measure. “This is the only treatment that is recognised and scientifically proven which guarantees a long-term relief.”Once you diagnose the cause, the next step is vaccination. “Once we find out what the patient is allergic to, desensitising vaccines are given. Most of the patients are unaware that vaccines are available since very few hospitals in India have full-fledged allergy departments,” he says.  As some allergies develop into serious ailments like asthma, many are forced to use preventive medicines for a long time.  “All the medicines you take for allergies will have some kind of short or long term side effect. Another speciality of the vaccines are that they are absolutely side-effect free.  Once you take the vaccine you will be hundred percent off your allergy,” he says. Vaccination is also effective for allergy related diseases. “Allergy based asthma is one example. When vaccinated you can prevent the triggers that cause asthma. The patients can go off inhalers and 70 to 80 per cent relief is almost guaranteed. Once your primary trigger, that’s an allergic trigger, is controlled the rest can be easily handled. As the symptoms stop you can confidently expose yourself to dust or cold,” he adds.   Dr Bikku Babu can be contacted at 9447168001.