The Typical Costs of Treatment

Depending on the severity of your condition, Hay Fever may end up being a relatively expensive disease with its chronic nature and pharmaceutical symptom management.

Let’s say you take a daily Claritin, Loratadine, 10mg 24 hr antihistamine is taken daily. For a box of 30 tablets, the regular price ranges about $19.89 at Target (and most drug stores). We can round this to about $20 a month for just a daily Claritin tablet and $240 a year.

Now let’s say you have multiple members of the family also taking this medication for their symptoms as well, this price will only go up and possibly double. But of course no medication is perfect and works for anyone. If you have congestion and decide that regular Claritin is sufficient and you need a decongestant, Claritin-D may be a more suitable choice, but with an added price. At Walgreens you can buy Claritin-D (120mg pseudoephedrine with 5mg loratadine antihistamine) 12-hour decongestant with 30 tablets for $29.89. The rounded cost for a day’s use of this drug will then be about $2. This would be $60 a month, and $720 a year if used two times a day, every day of the year.  Claritin-D, and other decongestants, such as Sudafed and Allegra-D are pose additional obstacles because you have to buy it over the counter which is an inconvenience.

Like I said before, Claritin or Claritin-D may not be the drug of choice for a particular user, others may prefer Allegra, Allegra-D, Zyrtec, and generic brands. However these are usually range around the same prices give or take a couple dollars.

Not only can these medications be expensive, but the other interventions taken by many allergy sufferers add up as well. These include things such as immunotherapy and lifestyle changes.

Immunotherapy prices tend to range on a variety of factors. These include length of therapy, type, and whether or not insurance will cover it. In the US, the average cost for immunotherapy ranged from $1,480-$2,500 for six years of therapy. This averaged to about $800 for the first, and most expensive year of therapy, and then dropped down to about $200-$300 dollars a year after that. This is an interesting consideration considering the outcomes of therapy hopefully mean eliminating drug usage for several years and when comparing this to some of the prices above this may be the more fiscally favorable choice.

Lastly, lifestyle changes do have a great financial impact on the hay fever sufferer as well. In previous entries. This includes using the air conditioning instead of opening windows, use of more cleaning products, and a higher quality of filtration system which may all increase electricity and gas bills. A common recommendation to those with hay fever is the use of a HEPA filter. The Envion Therapure Air Purifier for a Medium Room (26x8”) at target is sold online for $139.99. This only works for a room that is about 100-300sq ft. room, which means that multiple may need to be purchased to fulfill the needs of an individual with multiple rooms.

In conclusion, Hay Fever can add up to be a pretty expensive condition to have and something to keep in mind when choosing treatments.  However a combination of one or many may be necessary in order to ensure an improved quality of life which is priceless.

Is Hay Fever the same as other kinds of allergies?

The term allergies seem to be thrown around a lot. But how do you know the differences between the two and how are they related?

All allergies are technically hypersensitivity reactions in the body. As previously described in the blog entry http://hayfeverinfo.blogspot.com/2011/08/some-of-physio.html it is described that in Hay Fever, the body interprets an innocent particle, such as pollen or dust, as a harmful substance. As a result, the body recognizes the antigen at every exposure and causes an unnecessary immune reaction in order to “defeat” the invader. For nasal allergies, such as Hay Fever, the route of exposure is primarily through the respiratory tract; hence the respiratory symptoms such as nasal congestion, runny nose, and sneezing.

Food allergies, and other forms of allergies (ie drug or insect bites/stings) are also caused by the basic concept of hypersensitivity in the body. They also have varying degrees and severity depending on the body’s amount of exposure and how it interprets the threat. For example, the bee sting. The bee sting’s route of exposure is through a superficial sting, which can actually enter the blood stream. The antigen is first seen through the skin and the hypersensitivity reaction may include symptoms such as pain, swelling, and redness at the site of entry. For those with more severe allergies it can even reach the point of anaphylactic shock which is a life threatening condition where vasodilatation can cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure and airway constriction can inhibit breathing resulting in the body’s loss of oxygen.

The treatment for both of these types of allergies is through the same mechanisms usually centered around anti-inflammatory and antihistamine medications. So if you do suffer from hay fever then you may expect to take a diphenhydramine (Benadryl) for the hay fever symptoms and/or if a bee stung you it would also help in suppressing symptoms of the event.  However not all treatments work the same and this would not be sufficient for an anaphylactic emergency.

Because both of these conditions are both correlating around the body’s hypersensitivity, having one may put you at a higher risk of obtaining more allergies. For concerns feel free to contact a doctor and be aware of what allergies you may have.