Is stress making your allergy symptoms worse?

Try stress reduction to improve your quality of life and potentially relieve allergy symptoms.

Stress is bumper-to-bumper traffic when you're in a hurry. It's a worrisome illness, an argument with your partner, a job turning sour. It's the need to care for an ailing parent and a pile of unpaid bills.Stress has many faces, and creeps into our lives from many directions. No matter what causes it, stress puts the body and the mind on edge. It floods the body with stress hormones. The heart pounds. Muscles tense. Breathing quickens. The stomach churns.

The body's response to stress was honed in our prehistory. Collectively called the "fight-or-flight" response, it has helped humans survive threats like animal attacks, fires, floods, and conflict with other humans. Today, obvious dangers like those aren't the main things that trigger the stress response. Any situation you perceive as threatening, or which requires you to adjust to a change, can set it off. And that can spell trouble.

Chronic stress can lead to high blood pressure and heart disease. It can dampen the immune system, increasing susceptibility to colds and other common infections. It can contribute to asthma, digestive disorders, cancer, and other health problems. New research even supports the notion that high levels of stress somehow speed up the aging process.

Though stress is inevitable, you can help control your body's response to it. Exercise, meditation, invoking the relaxation response, and mindfulness are great stress busters.

If you suffer with allergy symptoms, you know all about the stress of having a chronic condition. Not only is it difficult to breathe with allergy symptoms, but poor sleep can lead to fatigue and problems concentrating. Allergy medicines can cause appetite changes, low energy, and even irritability. All you want is relief: from the stress, the symptoms, all of it.

How Is Stress Related to Allergy Symptoms?

Stress is your body's response to situations, inside and out, which interfere with the normal balance in your life. Virtually all of the body's systems -- digestive, cardiovascular, immune, and nervous system -- make adjustments in response to stress.When you're all stressed out, your body releases hormones and other chemicals, including histamine, the powerful chemical that leads to allergy symptoms. While stress doesn't actually cause allergies, it can make an allergic reaction worse by increasing the histamine in your bloodstream.

Unfortunately, stress and allergies go hand in hand, says Los Angeles-based ear, nose, and throat doctor, Murray Grossan, MD. Once the allergy season is full-blown, the combination of miserable allergy symptoms, nights of fitful sleep, and fatigue, definitely leave you in need of stress relief.

Chronic stress that persists for weeks or even months produces cortisol, the body's main stress-induced hormone. When cortisol becomes elevated and remains so for awhile, it affects the cells that comprise your immune system. The immune system can't keep infections or diseases at bay as it would do normally. Viruses or bacteria proliferate to the point where they can infect many cells, leading to symptoms and increased chance of illness.

Stress Relief Strategies When Allergy Symptoms Escalate

To get back in control when allergy symptoms have you reeling, consider the following stress-relief strategies:

Figure out what's adding to your stressful feelings and remove or reduce the source. If your stress is from overwork, learn to delegate, especially during allergy season. If your stress is from overextending yourself, rethink your priorities.

Get plenty of sleep every night, not just on weekends. Getting in bed and resting can restore the body's balance and help the allergic body heal.

Set priorities and budget your time to allow for a little relaxation. Having a more balanced life with moments of R&R each day can help you deal with allergy symptoms more effectively.

Exercise daily. Even if you only have time to take a walk, exercise helps reduce stress hormones that may cause you to feel keyed up. And remember, exercise produces epinephrine, which acts as a natural decongestant, helping you breathe better.

Learn to meditate. Twenty minutes of meditation once or twice daily can help you reduce stress and feel more relaxed.

Keep taking your allergy medications. While that may not sound like a stress-relief strategy, it might surprise you. Stress may cause anxiety and depression, and depressed individuals are less compliant with their medications. So stay on track!

by Brunilda Nazario, MD