how do antihistamines affect your immune system?
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How antihistamines work. Antihistamines work by blocking the effects of a chemical called histamine in your body. Histamine is made by your immune system to protect you from infections. If you have an allergy, your immune system reacts to something that isn't actually harmful to you like pollen.
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Many allergy medications include decongestants that can raise blood pressure, create palpitations and interfere with some other heart medications. Medications that often can be safely used by people with significant allergies include nasal corticosteroids. In addition, antihistamines are very effective.
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Uses. Cetirizine is an antihistamine used to relieve allergy symptoms such as watery eyes, runny nose, itching eyes/nose, sneezing, hives, and itching. It works by blocking a certain natural substance (histamine) that your body makes during an allergic reaction.
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Antihistamines are most commonly used in the treatment of allergies. Several dozen drugs are available on the pharmaceutical market, and their generic forms are advertised widely as very effective drugs for the treatment of allergic diseases.
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Benadryl (diphenhydramine) and Claritin (loratadine) are antihistamines used to treat allergy symptoms, such as itching, hives, runny nose, watery eyes, and sneezing from hay fever (allergic rhinitis) and other allergies, such as allergies to molds and dust mites.
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The drowsing effect of antihistamines can help relieve sleeplessness and anxiety. Taking too much diphenhydramine can cause a calming effect and mild euphoria.
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Antihistamines are usually effective at treating itching, sneezing and watery eyes, but they may not help with clearing a blocked nose. They're available in tablet form and also as nasal sprays and eye drops.
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Antihistamines can worsen urinary retention and narrow angle glaucoma. The antihistamines rarely cause liver injury. Their relative safety probably relates to their use in low doses for a short time only.
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They do not, however, treat nasal congestion, but are highly effective in treating a runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes, and scratchy throat. Antihistamines are known to cause extreme drowsiness; however, in certain people, they can cause insomnia, excitability, anxiety, restlessness, and a rapid heart rate.
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Antihistamines—they tend to not affect blood sugar; however, antihistamines do tend to make you drowsy. Therefore, it is important to understand that long periods of drowsiness can also be associated with hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia. Drowsiness may make you less able to accurately monitor blood sugar.
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Taking an antihistamine medication before getting your allergy shot can reduce the risk of a reaction, particularly a local reaction. Check with your doctor to see if this is recommended for you. The possibility of a severe reaction is scary — but you won't be on your own.
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Nasal antihistamines relieve symptoms such as sneezing, a runny nose, or postnasal drip. Nasal decongestants constrict dilated blood vessels within the nose, reducing swelling which allows air to flow more freely, relieving symptoms of congestion.
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Taking an over-the-counter antihistamine may work for you. Medications such as diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and cetirizine (Zyrtec) can stop your immune response to allergy triggers in its track, potentially lessening breathing difficulties.
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Desloratadine is an antihistamine. It is used to relieve the symptoms of hay fever and hives of the skin. Antihistamines work by preventing the effects of a substance called histamine, which is produced by the body. Histamine can cause itching, sneezing, runny nose, and watery eyes.
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As part of an immune response to foreign pathogens, histamine is produced by basophils and by mast cells found in nearby connective tissues. Histamine increases the permeability of the capillaries to white blood cells and some proteins, to allow them to engage pathogens in the infected tissues.
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Antihistamines are medicines often used to relieve symptoms of allergies, such as hay fever, hives, conjunctivitis and reactions to insect bites or stings. They're also sometimes used to prevent motion sickness and as a short-term treatment for insomnia.
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Antihistamines treat hay fever by blocking the action of the chemical histamine, which the body releases when it thinks it's under attack from an allergen. This stops the symptoms of the allergic reaction.