Seasonal Allergies and Itchy Skin: What You Need to Know

Do you suffer from itchy skin during certain times of the year? If you live with seasonal allergies, also known as allergic rhinitis, during allergy season, you may wonder if your allergies are to blame for intense itching. Pollen allergies are a common cause of seasonal allergies and can lead to various symptoms, including itchy skin. Let’s look at how seasonal allergies can cause itchy skin and what you can do to get relief.

How Do Common Seasonal Allergy Triggers Cause Itchy Skin?

The same allergies that cause your sneezing, itchy throat, red eyes, and runny nose can also cause skin irritation. A condition called “allergic contact dermatitis” occurs when an allergen comes into contact with your skin and causes an allergic reaction. The most common allergens that can cause allergic reactions and contact dermatitis are pollens, danders, and molds.

When these allergens come into contact with your skin, they can cause several other symptoms too, including:

• Itching
• Redness
• Swelling
• Blisters
• Itchy rash

Chronic kidney disease-associated pruritus can also cause widespread and bothersome itching.

Eczema can also be a result of seasonal allergies.

You may also suffer from seasonal food allergies that cause eczema if you eat different foods at different times of the over the counter year. Doing a rotation diet to find the culprits can help.

It is essential to see an ENT doctor if you have seasonal allergies and suffer from itchy skin. They can help you determine if an allergy causes your itchy or skin condition and can prescribe medication to relieve symptoms. The doctor may also advise avoiding triggers such as pollen or mold spores.

Tips for Relieving Seasonal Allergy Itchy Skin with Oral Antihistamines

If you suffer from itchy skin caused by seasonal allergies, there are a few things you can do to relieve itchy skin get relief.

• Use a humidifier: A humidifier can help add moisture to the air, which can help relieve dry, itchy skin, especially if the inside of your nose feels itchy often.
• Take a cool bath or shower: This can help soothe your skin and reduce itchiness. Adding oatmeal or baking soda to your bath can also be helpful.
• Spot treat an itchy area with a cold pack or a bucket of cold water to reduce inflammation and itchiness.
• Apply a moisturizer to help prevent dryness and itching. Look for products that contain ingredients like glycerin or hyaluronic acid.
• Avoid triggers: If you know what triggers your itchy skin (such as pollen or mold spores), try to avoid them as much as possible.
• Try an over-the-counter allergy itch cream with the active pharmaceutical ingredient hydrocortisone. These creams may help relieve itchiness and inflammation as you use them daily. The healing effect builds over time.
• Try a menthol cream that acts to cool the area that feels itchy.
• If you are an adult, use a numbing product with lidocaine (not for children) to reduce the sensation of itchiness. Be careful not to apply this product to large areas of the body. (Also, do not use lidocaine with babies or small children as it can cause severe harm or death. Overdose symptoms in babies or children include heart and brain injury, seizures, or even death.)
• Consider taking oral antihistamines to help reduce itching and other allergy symptoms. Second-generation antihistamines like cetirizine and loratadine may be particularly effective.

If you suffer from itchy skin caused by seasonal allergies and have tried these tips without relief from severe itch, be sure to see a doctor. They can help you determine if an allergy causes your itchy skin and find long-lasting ways to combat the skin itch itself.

How Your ENT Doctor Can Help

Allergy treatments with your ENT doctor can help:

• Reduce fatigue from overactivity of your immune system and treat conditions like hay fever
• Make your quality of living healthier
• Reduce your cost of office visits, medication, and loss of work and school.

Allergy treatments that take you into a future without hayfever, itchy, dry skin from seasonal allergies, or severe conditions like chronic kidney disease-associated pruritus, uremic pruritus, or thyroid disease, that can cause widespread and bothersome itching include:

• Allergy injections (SCIT)
• Sublingual drops (SLIT)
• Sublingual tablets

These forms of long-lasting allergy treatments can boost the body’s immune system overreacts to for decades. Once treatment takes effect, you feel reduced fatigue and improved overall health.

After allergy therapies, you can enjoy the outdoors without worrying about your immune response to exposure to allergy triggers. Once you’ve completed your course of treatment, there is less need for pharmaceutical intervention or continuous doctor visits.

With the right allergy therapies, you won’t feel forced to worry about whether you might face exposure to animals, pollens, grasses, etc., every time you leave your house. And you can say goodbye to itchy skin tests, watering eyes, sneezing attacks, hives, chronic sinus infections, and eczema.

How Do ENT Allergy Treatments Work with Allergen Immunotherapy?

Allergy shots, a method of allergen immunotherapy, work by slowly exposing you to small amounts of the substance that triggers your allergies, whether they are sinus issues nasal congestion, allergy asthma, itchy eyes, eczema, or hives. Shots help your body build up a tolerance to the allergen and can eventually make your allergies disappear entirely.

One of the latest allergy treatments, sublingual allergen immunotherapy (SLIT), involves placing drops or tablets of an allergen extract under the tongue. The amount of allergen increases over time. You usually take sublingual daily for several months, gradually decreasing the dose. SLIT reduces allergy symptoms, including hay fever and itchy skin.

We Can Help

At Enticare, our board-certified ENT doctors can treat your allergies at the root cause, providing permanent relief from allergies without daily medications or creams. We can also help you with allergy medications and find the right combination of treatments to manage your seasonal allergies and itchy skin until longer-lasting therapies take effect. Our team will work with you to develop a personalized treatment plan that meets your unique needs.

We look forward to helping you achieve long-term relief from your allergies! Schedule a consultation today to get started on your journey to allergy-free living.