Eyes of Summer: Summer Allergies

Summer is here in Indiana! Last Monday marked the beginning of this hot season-the season for grass and weed pollen allergies. I myself suffer immensely as a victim of allergies all year round, but the summer months are my toughest season-are they yours? Some of the worst symptoms for me are red, itchy and watery eyes. With all the pollen floating around in the hot summer air, how can you avoid it? I know I can stay inside with my air conditioner filtering out the allergens, but what fun is that? Summer is one of the most beautiful seasons in Indiana and the most fun to be outside.

So what do to about allergies? For all you other allergy victims that absolutely love warm weather, my number one tip would be to wear your sunglasses! Sunglasses help shield allergens out of your eyes. However, in order to know how to truly kick the itch, you have to know a bit about what’s causing it. Your eyes may be overreacting to allergens as they are seen as harmful. WebMD explains that your body sends histamines to fight the allergens, causing your eyes to expel water and mucus, especially in the eyes of those more allergy sensitive.

If your allergies are minute, a simple antihistamine pill such as Claritin or Zyrtec might temporarily relieve your symptoms. If you want to go the way of temporary relief, decongestants can help clear up the redness in allergy induced eyes.   Allaboutvision.com describes how decongestants make the blood vessels in your eyes smaller, decreasing the amount of red in your eye, treating the symptom. Be careful though, blood vessels may become dependent on decongestants and can get bigger increasing eye redness when you stop using them.

Eye care doctors may suggest products with mast cell stabilizers, which will relieve redness and inflammation as another solution. The most plausible solution in my opinion for such troublesome tears seems to be the immediate and long lasting relief from eye drops. Vision doctors can prescribe non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) eye drops to reduce the most common summer eye allergies.  However, if you’re still unsure about your eye allergies, and they continue to persist, come in to any of our Indiana Dr. Tavel vision centers and talk with our eye care doctors for advice about allergens.  You can also learn more about possible eye drops and allergy relief so you too can fully enjoy this hot summer season!