Achoo! How drugs saved my life.

I've been over winter since about mid-January, so when March 20th rolled around I was more than happy to greet the new season. Cherry blossoms, warm weather, and warm rain showers. Best season ever, right? WRONG. WRONG. WRONG. WRONG.

I love most of spring as much as the next guy, but when those pollen counts start ticking higher and higher my body begins a heavy revolt. I start to sneeze, my nose runs, my eyes itch, and my mind starts to become overwhelmed. It heavily affects my ability to focus and is an overall huge hindrance to my productivity - not good when you're working in a lab! For today's post, I'm going to focus on something that has kept me from having a meltdown over the past few weeks - antihistamines.

Figure 1. This is why I don't like going outside. Yuck!

When you experience and allergy attack, be it hives or a runny nose, your body is mounting an immune response to a perceived threat. My immune system, for example, hates cats, grass, and trees. When it detects bits and pieces from these things in the form of dander and pollen, it ramps up the production of antibodies against these allergens. These antibodies then bind to cells called mast cells which contain large amounts of histamine. Once released, this histamine causes a variety of the symptoms you normally associate with an allergic response. For example, these antibodies can bind to mucous membranes in your nasal cavity, leading to a histamine release which causes sneezing and nasal congestion.

Antihistamines work by blocking the receptors that recognize histamine, resulting in a reduced immune response. The earliest antihistamines developed, also known as first generation antihistamines, were not very specific to the histamine receptor. This lead to some undesirable side effects, including drowsiness thanks to their ability to cross the blood-brain barrier into the central nervous system. This is why if you've taken one of these medications (i.e. Benadryl, ChlorTrimeton), you may have had to avoid driving! Because of this side effect, some modifications to these first generation antihistamines are used to treat insomnia (i.e. ZzzQuil).

Then came the second generation antihistamines, which were much better at targeting their intended histamine receptors and only crossed the blood-brain barrier to a small extent. These "non-drowsy" medications include Claritin, Allegra, and Zyrtec. Despite being in the same class of antihistamines, all of these different medications have varying chemical structures and potencies. Your results may vary!

Finally, one of the most popular classes of allergy medications in recent years has been the nasally administered corticosteroids, which includes Flonase and Nasacort. These nasal sprays work in a slightly different way than the above medications and aren't technically antihistamines. These corticosteroids bind to glucocorticoid receptors in the nasal passages, which are important in downregulating immune activity (inflammation).

In my experience, Flonase has worked the best for me. Each person is different, however, and may require different regiments of allergy prevention medications to be effective. For more information, go see your doctor! In the meantime, I'm going to go back into the lab, happy and heavily medicated.