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Beyond Allergies
Best Kept Secrets of a Successful Employee
Your belt matches your shoes, your new outfit is pressed and you have all the accessories to bring your outfit together. You are dressed for success. However, if you aren’t allergy aware, hay fever may prevent you from making it to the office in the first place.
Hay Fever Defined
Hay fever (allergic rhinitis) results in congestion, sneezing, runny nose, irritated eyes and other annoying symptoms for more than 35 million Americans every year. It occurs when your body has an allergic reaction to something in your environment. During this time of the year, ragweed is the most common cause of hay fever, though mold, pet dander, dust mites and cockroaches can cause hay fever year round.
When your body comes in contact with these allergens, your immune system kicks into overdrive. At the initial allergen exposure, the body creates an antibody called immunoglobulin (IgE), which rests on a type of white blood cells called mast cells. After repeated exposure to the same allergen, a massive release of histamines and other inflammatory mediators occurs. The end result—runny nose, watery eyes and sneezing.
As every person’s genetic makeup is different, so is every individual’s likelihood to suffer allergies from certain substances.That’s why some people can’t even think of ragweed without sneezing for days, whereas other people never experiences hay fever despite living in a household filled with allergens.
Days Lost, Work Lost
Obviously, a little sneezing and congestion never hurt anyone. However, constant sneezing, eye irritation, and frequent nose blowing because of hay fever is frustrating and embarrassing at work. Because of this, allergic rhinitis greatly reduces your ability to be the best employee possible.
In fact, Americans make approximately 14 million physician office visits each year for hay fever relief. These lost days resulted in more than $250 million in losses to U.S. companies because of decreased productivity in 1998. Since you can’t be at your physician’s office or at home caring for your hay fever and at work at the same time, staying hay fever-free is essential to fulfilling your job duties and earning that big promotion you’ve been seeking.
Also, if you’re going back to school to get a first, second or third degree, battling hay fever could force you to miss class. Missing a single class can put you a bit behind in your schoolwork, but missing multiple classes can make it nearly impossible to pass.
Stay on The Job
Fortunately, there is good news. You can actually avoid hay fever—or at least lessen the severity of your symptoms enough to get to work in the morning. Ideally, you should avoid allergens to guard against hay fever.
If hay fever affects you, it often can be controlled with over-the-counter medications, such as antihistamines and decongestants (refer to the OTC table on page 4 for more details on which ones to choose). One downside to some of these medications is that they often cause drowsiness, reducing your work productivity and making it dangerous to operate heavy machinery and to drive to work. Claritin is one exception which is usually non-sedating.
When these over-the-counter medications aren’t enough, visit an allergist, or an otolaryngologist for testing and diagnosis. Once an appropriate diagnosis is made, a treatment plan can be created for your specific case. As it is nearly impossible to avoid ragweed during the fall, another option is to use topical nasal steroids before the allergy season is in full swing. Nasal steroids prevent your nose from reacting to allergy causing substances, and ultimately prevent you from the frustrating hay fever symptoms that have plagued you for years.
Another common option is immunotherapy. With immunotherapy, the sufferer receives regular injections of purified allergen extracts for between two to five years. The goal of immunotherapy is to rewire the immune system so it no longer overacts to allergens and causes hay fever. Sometimes, what seems to be allergy symptoms may not be related to allergies at all. If allergy testing is negative, you may be suffering from non-allergic rhinitis or chronic rhinitis, which is linked to sleep breathing problems or silent acid reflux (LPRD). With non-allergenic rhinitis, your nose becomes sensitive to temperature changes, pressure changes, humidity changes, chemicals, odors, and emotions. Non-allergic rhinitis responds to allergy medications, but not completely, so creating an appropriate treatment plan and understanding the goals of treatment is important for maximum quality of life.
Receiving appropriate care for hay fever—or avoiding hay fever altogether—is essential to being the best employee possible. By taking preventive and management steps today, you’ll be able to remain healthy and happy at work today, tomorrow, and beyond.
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