How Allergies Affect Your Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL)

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Did you know that allergies directly affect your health-related quality of life (HRQOL)? Your HRQOL directly focuses on factors that directly impact your quality of life, both negative and positive. Allergies contribute to a negative impact due to the way they make you feel and the symptoms they produce.

Fortunately, there are treatment options available to eliminate allergies and improve your HRQOL. Allow us to explain a successful treatment option called immunotherapy, also known as allergy shots.

Allergies & HRQOL

When you think of allergies, the first thought that comes to your mind may be frustrating symptoms. While symptoms like a runny nose and watery eyes are enough to seek medical relief, there are more ways that allergies impact your quality of life. If you have allergies, your HRQOL may be affected in various ways, such as:

Avoidance of outdoor or social activities
Lack of productivity at work or school
Restless night’s sleep
Struggle with being happy or in a good mood

Does this sound familiar? Your allergies can affect much more of your life than “just” causing allergy symptoms. Dr. Brauer can accurately diagnose you through a skin test or blood test, then discuss which treatment option is right for you.

Allergies & Immunotherapy

When you experience frustrating allergy symptoms, your body thinks it’s helping! Your body produces these symptoms it’s because your immune system has identified an allergen as a threat, and it is trying to flush it out of your system.

Immunotherapy is a preventative treatment option to teach your immune system not to overreact to these allergens. By slowly introducing the allergen to your immune system in safe and small doses, your immune system will begin to realize the allergen is NOT a threat. This introductory phase is called the build-up phase. Once you reach the desired dosage amount, the maintenance phase begins. During this maintenance phase, you will continue to receive allergy shots to maintain the lesson Dr. Brauer is teaching your immune system.

Once these two phases are complete, you won’t experience frustrating allergy symptoms or a lowered HRQOL due to that specific allergen. Check out our blog all about immunotherapy FAQs for more information!

Dr. Brauer can discuss ways to improve your health-related quality of life! Contact us today: 270-228-2811