Dust Allergy Symptoms
What is dust allergy?
Dust allergy is the allergy that happens because of some certain proteins present in household dust. Dust is nothing but a gathering of wide variety of substances such as mold, dust mites, pet dander and remains of insects. There is great possibility of having allergy due to these allergic factors. Dust allergy is very common that can be managed by various ways.
If your house is having dust it doses not means it is dirty. There are various other factors such as food flecks, mold spores, fabric fibers, human skin particles, bacteria, pet dander, remains of cockroaches, debris etc that also included in dust particles. These are microscopic members that dusting and vacuum cleaning fails to remove completely.
There may be possibility of about 19,000 dust mites in a single gram of dust. But there is no any possibility of remaining these contents for long time on the body and spread the disease. But the dust mites may die if there is decrease in humidity below 40 to 50 percent.
Symptoms of dust allergy:
Dust allergy is the most important cause of allergic rhinitis that continues through out the year. It may strengthen when you change the bed covers or sofa covers and cleans your house. Below are some common symptoms of dust allergy;
- Runny nose
- Stuffy nose and ear
- Watery and itchy eyes
- Coughing
- Difficulty in breathing
- Sneezing
- Crusting of eyelids
- Post nasal trip
- Atopic dermatitis
- Itching in throat
- Conjunctivitis
- Dark circle around the eyes
- Pain in the face
However, these symptoms become worse at night and better during day, but it may improve if the person again used to go outside. The symptoms may continue through out the year giving uneasiness and discomfort for patient. However, these symptoms are not seasonal.
How the dust allergy can be diagnosed?
The allergic person may experience problems with allergies and dust, when some one gets these indications they have to consult allergists. They may ask you the questions regarding to the environment that you are living at or working at, your eating habits, family history and severity of the symptoms you are having.
Mostly the skin test is used to diagnose the disease to observe the reaction of body to allergen. In this test a small amount of dust is used to put under the skin via minor scratch. The indication of red welt shows the positive results of dust allergy.
Treatment for dust allergy:
The person can't avoid these small dust particles completely but can avoid places, which are having dust in large scale. Person who is too much sensitive to dust or dust allergy should have to avoid an allergic person to reduce exposure to allergens.
You can keep your bedroom, pillows, mattress clean and in dust free covers. The bed sheets must be clean and have to change on daily basis and should be washed on every week. There should be low level of moisture and decrease in humidity level that can be done by using air conditioner.
The person having dust allergy can use medicines but are not as much effective in severe cases. The injections of immunotherapy and allergy shots can be used to reduce the risk of the development of new allergies. It can be very beneficial to treat the disease in first stage that may also reduce the chances of having asthma.
Below are some medicines that can help to reduce the disease:
- Antihistamines: It helps to reduce the runny nose, sneezing, itchiness of allergies. It is more effective you use it before the exposure of allergy.
- Cromolyn sodium: It is nasal spray that helps to prevent the reaction of body to allergens. It takes 2 to 4 weeks to start the working.
- Eye drops: This medicine used if the other medicine fails to give relief from itchy and watery eyes.
- Nasal steroid sprays: It is helpful to reduce the reaction tissues to inhaled allergens.
- Decongestants: This medicine is helpful to relieve the stuffy nose of allergies. These medicines are used only for short periods and not more than 3 days because the person can become addicted to the spray.
