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Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
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Prevention
By Mayo Clinic staffPreventing allergies depends on the type of allergy you have. General measures include the following:
- Avoid known triggers. Even if you get treatment for your allergy symptoms, you still need to do your best to avoid your triggers. Common triggers include airborne allergens outdoors, at home or at work, and certain foods, insects or medications. Some allergic reactions are triggered or worsened by temperature extremes or emotional stress.
- Keep a diary. When trying to identify exactly what causes or worsens your allergic symptoms, try to track all of your activities, note when symptoms occur, and write down what seems to help. This may help you and your doctor identify triggers and the best steps to prevent and treat them.
- Wear a medical alert bracelet if you've ever had a severe allergic reaction. A medical alert bracelet (or necklace) lets others know that you have a serious allergy in case you have a reaction and you're unable to communicate.
References
- Allergy. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/allergy. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. http://www.acaai.org/public/questions/frequent.htm. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
- Tips to Remember: What is an allergic reaction? American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. http://www.aaaai.org/patients/publicedmat/tips/whatisallergicreaction.stm. Accessed Jan. 7, 2009.
- Bauer BA. Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine. New York, N.Y.: Time Inc.; 2007:156-157.
