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CNN Live Today

Allergy Agony

Aired April 18, 2002 - 11:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: They have become the rites of spring for so many of us: Watery eyes, runny nose, or sneezing that just won't quit. Yes, we're talking about allergy agony, the focus of today's "Paging Dr. Gupta" segment.

Now, last hour when Dr. Gupta joined us, we talked about some of the causes of the stiffness of spring. Now we are looking for some relief. All morning we have been taking your questions from CNN.com. So now let's get some answers. CNN medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us -- rejoins us, I should say, along with allergist Dr. Kathleen Sheerin, who is with us face-to-face and in person for the first time. Good to have you.

DR. KATHLEEN SHEERIN, ALLERGIST: Thank you very much.

HARRIS: Let me ask you first of all. We have been talking about pollen here in Atlanta, in particularly if the Southeast -- 90 parts per billion is considered to be high?

SHEERIN: Correct.

HARRIS: Do you know what reading is today?

SHEERIN: The reading in Atlanta was 900 today.

HARRIS: Do you know what the reading in Washington, D.C. is?

SHEERIN: No, I don't, but you'll tell me.

HARRIS: Check the paper, 2,447.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, we're not doing bad today.

SHEERIN: Well, one of the reasons is that our spring is ahead of Washington's. So our trees are finishing their pollination. Washington is halfway there, and Minnesota is probably just starting.

HARRIS: We've actually hit 3,000 here a couple times, haven't we? That is just ungodly.

SHEERIN: The highest has been 6,000.

HARRIS: Six thousand? SHEERIN: Correct.

HARRIS: For people out there who can barely handle a 90, what do you do if it's at 6,000 when you wake up one day?

SHEERIN: Well, when it's 6,000, it affects almost everybody, not just allergy sufferers. So, keep your windows closed. Use some saline drops in your eyes. And make sure you give the dog a wash. And by the way, this is not from pollen. This is a virus.

HARRIS: I'm glad you -- what a segue. We took the e-mail questions from the folks that have e-mailed us throughout the morning, and that is the first question we had this morning. Want to read that one, Sanjay?

GUPTA: Sure. "There seems to be a fine line between a virus and an allergy. What do you draw the line?" I guess nobody better to answer that question than you. How do you know?

SHEERIN: There is no perfect answer for that. It even confuses doctors.

HARRIS: Is that right?

SHEERIN: Correct. But one of the things you can do when you have a cold is you watch the progression of symptoms. A cold generally lasts seven to 10 days. And with allergies, it may last weeks and weeks, especially if it's during spring pollen season. Generally, people with allergies don't have fever. They don't have general aches and pains. And often with a cold, you will have that.

So those are the two things that can help distinguish. But at the very beginning of a cold, you can sneeze, you can have runny nose. It is very difficult to tell.

HARRIS: All right, let's get to the next one. The second question we have here, Dr. Sheerin: "I have allergies, and onset asthma. I do take the nasal spray Nasonex and shots for allergies. Singulair, serevent and Tilade for asthma. I've heard the type of steroid in the sprays can cause premature aging, bone density loss and diabetes. Is there a way to effectively treat aggressive allergies and asthma without any type of steroids?" This is from Beth Adorholt of Birmingham, Alabama.

SHEERIN: There's a lot of concern in the public about the word steroid. We call it steroid phobia. And steroids are not the steroids used by weightlifters. They don't cause muscles and body building.

HARRIS: So your nose won't get real big and strong.

SHEERIN: Correct. But they are the most effective way we have to treat allergy and asthma. And there have been tons and tons of studies done to show that these medicines used in regular doses are safe for children, even young children, down to the age of 12 months. And long-term studies have shown that in usual doses they don't affect growth. They don't have significant effect on bone density. But it's important to discuss these issues with your doctor, and monitor things.

HARRIS: Got you. Anything to add, doctor?

GUPTA: Well, you know, people always ask about nasal steroids becoming addictive. I know people talk about that. And you know, a few people start taking them and they want them over and over again. What do you usually recommend for that?

SHEERIN: There are two types of sprays. There is the over-the- counter spray, and one of the examples is Afrin or Dristan. Those are available without prescription, and they can be addicting. The more you use them, the more you need them. Nasal steroid sprays are not addicting at all. You can use them for 10 years and put them down the next day. They control inflammation in the nose. And they actually treat all the symptoms of allergy -- congestion, runny, itchy, sneezey. So it is very good medicine for treating allergies.

GUPTA: Is this something that you would sort of, you know, if a patient comes to you with allergies today, is that something you would start off with even, the nasal spray?

SHEERIN: It is one of the most effective medicines that you can use. Not always the easiest accepted by the patient. Because patients will say, oh, I don't like putting something up my nose. I just don't like it. Or I don't like it dripping down the back of my throat. The nice thing is we have five or six different varieties. Some smell, some don't. Some drip down the back, some don't. So there is usually a formulation that your doctor can find to help you.

HARRIS: OK. I will let these doctors give some other people some help. We got this from Connie Harold from Fredericksburg, Virginia. This is for you, Dr. Gupta. "I am a 49-year-old female who has been having horrific sinus pain in all four cavities, nausea included. I've been on all meds, including nasacor and antibiotics, and nothing works. What's next?"

GUPTA: I will tell you, this is a perfect example of just how severe it can get. And people talk about allergies sort of more generically, but it can be a significant problem, having a lot of pain in all the cavities, lots of sinus troubles. Sometimes allergies give you a lot of congestion, which can then make you more likely to get infections in your sinuses. So this is a good example of that.

Sounds like she has already tried some medications. Sometimes the medications that we have been talking about don't work, including again the over-the-counter stuff. Nose sprays, prescription medications -- it may be time to try something else, like maybe even a short dose of steroids -- short course of steroids, or allergy shots. Try and figure out what it is you are allergic to, and take the shots, like we were talking about earlier. I know you like the shots.

HARRIS: Yeah, we are going to talk about that in a bit. But I just never heard about anybody getting nauseous from allergies. But we have no time to talk about that. We have to move on. How about this one? Dr. Sheerin, you take this one. This is from Sandy from Tallahassee: "I have been on allergy medications, such as Claritin and Allegra-D for several years, and yet this still does not give me as much relief as I would like. Is it possible to become immune to these medications, and is there anything new I can try to get relief?"

SHEERIN: When you look at the group of medicine called antihistamines, you actually can become used to the medicine, and the medical term tackyfilacksis (ph).

HARRIS: Tackyfilacksis (ph)?

SHEERIN: Tackyfilacksis (ph). And usually if you rotate off of the antihistamine and try something else, you can then go back to the original medicine.

HARRIS: Your body de-adjusts.

SHEERIN: Correct. But for her, maybe she needs to try a nasal steroid, or, even as we suggested, finding out what she is allergic to and considering allergy shots.

HARRIS: Dr. Gupta, you take this final question we got here. This is a good one. As a matter of fact, I have noticed the same exact reaction. "Why is it that when I exercise, my allergic reactions reduce, but when I stop they all come back?"

GUPTA: Right. And that exact same thing happens to me. I think that's a very interesting question. And actually what happens is, when you exercise, your body is actually releasing all sorts of different things in the body that cause a very specific reaction. It can actually cause your blood vessels to constrict. So same blood vessels that are not constricting that are causing you to have a runny nose, watery eyes, all those sort of symptoms, will actually constrict, and therefore your symptoms go away. You stop exercising, symptoms come back.

So you can just keep exercising, I guess.

HARRIS: OK, thanks, Michael McCarthy Jr. from Queens, New York. I feel your pain. I have had that myself a number of times.

Well, Dr. Kathleen Sheerin and Dr. Gupta, thank you very much. And I'm sure the folks out there will thank you as well for the great advice. And we will be talking about...

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: Yeah. Yeah. But I'll have to have a shot before I take a shot from you, so we'll talk about that later.

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