SAN ANTONIO — Texas is a notorious hot spot for allergies, and many people suffer more here than in other states. In face, the five worst states in the U.S. for fall allergies include New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Add Louisiana in the South, and rounding out the top five, Texas.
"It's improved my life a lot cause, I mean, I'm not sneezing as much as not coughing," said Anaely Silva who is talking about her allergy shots. She's learned to get ahead of her allergies, instead of waiting until they hit. The shot helps her more than taking a pill that may not get the job done. She added, "It would always prevent me to miss work or miss out on my work and fall behind. So I would highly recommend getting shots because it it's helped me and I haven't missed work since then."
Dr. Amanda Trott-Gregorio, an allergies with Juniper Allergy told us, "If you know that what you've done before to manage your allergies just isn't cutting it anymore, it's important that you see an allergist before your terrible season starts." And for many the terrible season is mountain cedar season which is right around the corner, starting in November and lasting through March, with it's peak in the winter. Dr. Trott-Gregorio added, "We have the only really winter pollen problem in the country. And so when they pollinate, there's just a ton of it. You can see it kind of smoking off the trees because there's such a big plume of it kind of coming off all at once."
That's why getting ahead of the season is so important. Dr. Trott-Gregorio said, "If we do something like allergy shots, which is very effective, it takes a couple of weeks to really build up that tolerance that we are inducing in your immune system."
Dr. Trott-Gregorio also says the allergy shots are an active immune response which blocks the allergic process. But it doesn't happen immediately, which is why now is the time to take care of your winter allergies since fall allergies are already here.