You may have heard of allergy shots and how they can help “cure” allergies. While allergy shots are not a miracle cure, they can greatly limit, if not eliminate, your allergy symptoms to certain substances over time. Learn more about allergy shots and how they might be able to help you.
What Are Allergy Shots?
What are allergy shots? Allergy shots are actually allergen immunotherapy. To understand what an allergy shot is, you must first understand how allergies occur. When the body’s immune system doesn’t recognize a substance and misidentifies it as harmful to the body, it causes an allergic reaction. Allergy shots dose your body’s immune system with the allergen in small doses to build up an immunity, much the same way that vaccines work.
How They Work
When you first start getting allergy shots, you will go into your doctor’s office once or twice a week for three to six months to get the shot. This is called the build-up phase. After build-up, you will have a maintenance phase of a shot about every two to four weeks. You will be on the maintenance phase for two to three years on average before it is no longer needed.
Results
You may notice some lessening of your allergy symptoms during the build-up phase, but most people do not see real relief until they have been on the maintenance phase for about a year. After the maintenance phase is completed, you will no longer have allergy symptoms, or if you do have symptoms, they will be minor.
If you are interested in learning more about allergy shots and how they can help you, contact us today for more information or to schedule an appointment.