Allergies Diagnosis and Treatments

At USCIS Clinic, San Jose, we separate allergy treatment into four branches:

Testing, Avoidance, Medication, and Immunotherapy (allergy shots).

It often takes a combination of avoidance of the cause of allergy, medications, immunotherapy, and even a holistic approach to providing a resolution of your problems. After a consult with experienced physician Dr. Neema Malhotra, she will discuss testing and treatment options.

Most treatment focuses on medications – those that treat symptoms, like Allegra and Zyrtec, or those that prevent symptoms, like Flonase and Nasonex. Newer medications like Allermist, a nasal steroid, and Patanase, a nasal antihistamine, or Xyzal, a second-generation version of Zyrtec, aren’t much stronger. Even with ideal combinations of these medications and fine-tuning of the dosages, inadequate relief is still inadequate relief. Even worse, most medications only treat symptoms, and those symptoms come right back as soon as you stop taking the medicine.

Of all treatment options, shots are the only ones that treat the underlying allergy, working toward a cure. In study after study, allergy shots, when taken for three to five years, continue to provide relief for years after treatment. That’s certainly not true for pills or sprays. Not even for the newest allergy medications.

Testing

What is Allergy Blood Testing?

Blood tests are helpful when it comes to allergy testing. Specific IgE blood testing can help to identify sensitization to allergic triggers in patients, without the need for a skin prick test. Allergy testing can help providers understand how to limit a patient’s risk for another allergic reaction.

Regional Respiratory Testing

ImmunoCap regional respiratory profiles help pinpoint specific allergens in a patient’s local area to help in targeted therapy, and to help identify areas patients should avoid where certain allergens are more prevalent.

Regional test profiles include sensitization testing for mites, epidermal, food, grass, insect, mold, tree, and weeds for our California.

Food Allergy Profile from BioReference

With ImmunoCap Allergen testing done at various labs, healthcare providers can gain the necessary information to develop a patient’s dietary management plan and improve his or her quality of life. The multi-component food allergy profile can assess whether a patient reacts to common food allergies, including almond, cashew, hazelnut, walnut, peanut, sesame, codfish, salmon, tuna, scallop, shrimp, milk, soybean, and wheat.

Egg, Milk, and Peanut Allergy Testing

In addition to abnormalities in the general food allergy profile, component testing looks at specific egg, milk, and nut proteins to determine how likely a patient is to react to baked or raw products.

• Egg: 70% of children with egg allergy do not react to baked eggs. Egg Allergen Component testing can help healthcare providers determine the likelihood of a reaction to products baked with eggs, such as muffins or cookies, as well as inform the likelihood of allergy persistence.
• Milk: 75% of children with cow’s milk allergy do not react to baked milk. Milk Allergen Component testing can help healthcare providers determine the likelihood of a reaction to baked goods, such as cookies or cheese pizza, as well as the likelihood of allergy persistence.
• Peanut: 77.6% of patients sensitized to peanuts may not be at risk for a systemic reaction. Peanut Allergen Component testing can help healthcare providers define the likelihood of a systemic anaphylactic reaction and determine the need for prescribed precautions.