ell hello.

>> I'm Jennifer Blomquist.

Thanks so much for tuning in tonight.

This is HealthLine and I have the privilege of hosting the show this evening.

If you're new to our show I guarantee you will learn something and you will love it.

It's a great show.

You get free advice.

We have a different guest every time we do the program and tonight we happen to have a nurse practitioner who specializes in and this is great for this time of year allergies also she specializes in asthma and immunology.

So we're going to introduce you to her in just a minute so you'll notice a phone number came up at the bottom of the screen.

It's (969) 27 two zero that'll get you directly here to the studio if you're in Fort Wayne if you're outside of Fort Wayne, it's still a toll free call but dial 866- in front of their the the phone lines are open now and like I said, we are live here in the studio and we welcome your calls your questions.

Heather her name is Heather Wilson and she has a wealth of information she can share with you.

Maybe you have a particular question about yourself or someone in your family and you'd like to get her advice on that.

Please call sooner rather than later.

We hate to miss your call.

The show only lasts half an hour and I want to remind you have two options when you call in.

The first option is you can call and ask your question live.

They do not throw you on the air.

I wanted to clarify that in case you're nervous about doing this you'll talk to a call screener first and then we'll take your call.

And the nice thing about calling live is you can interact with Heather.

Maybe she wants to ask some more questions about or help you maybe you have other questions you want to ask her besides the first one you ask.

So that's a great option.

Another option which is also good is you can just give your question to the call screener and they will pass it along to me so you'll still get your information.

So let me go ahead and introduce you to our guest.

As I said, her name is Heather Wilson and a reminder you're a nurse practitioner specializing in asthma, allergies and immunology.

That is correct.

Yes.

Thank you so much for having me.

Oh, it's a pleasure to have you and great timing too because we've got a lot of people around that are probably uncomfortable as we speak because this is like we were talking before the show this is ragweed is the the big culprit this time of year from now until frost.

>> I was going to say I was going to ask you when is the when is relief in sight so Thanksgiving if we're lucky.

Oh really OK that does it take a hard freeze or because we could get a little frost like in October but you need the hard the hard won OK so in the meantime if you're suffering from allergies Gashi go to the grocery store or any pharmacy and there are just so many different items now normally we do not use name brands because we don't want to embellish one product over the other.

But tonight we're going to make an exception and use the name brands which is nice because all of these medications that you can buy you're probably familiar with them by their commercial name not so much the medical name most people know Claritin versus Lerato.

>> So we're going to you we're going to use the name brands tonight but maybe you think you have allergies and you're looking for some relief.

I mean it's pretty much anything over the counter an OK thing.

I mean I realize there are children's products and adults but is it OK to just go out there and get something or should you consult with maybe your doctor or pharmacist?

>> Absolutely.

You can go out and try something that's over the counter.

There's multiple options like you said, you've got your Anna histamines like your Zyrtec, your Claritin, your Alegra, things like that.

Now some of them are sedating.

Some of them are not like for instance, Alegra I believe is the only one that airline pilots are allowed to take because it's non sedating.

I don't know.

So you can take that in the morning, the evening whatever works.

>> Zyrtec tends to make some people sleepy.

Zeisel, which is kind of a older sister choose your tech definitely makes a lot of people sleepy.

>> So they say because I notice some of those like I'll see Desertec say non drowsy and I think you're the clear but now it's not necessarily a Claritin.

>> It's usually OK though.

OK, you've also got a lot of different nasal sprays that are available.

You've got nasal steroids which help shrink the swelling in the nasal passages.

The thing with the nasal steroids those are Flonase, Nasacort and then Rhiner caught if you can still find it I believe the generic of Ranaghat still out which is budesonide but those take about 10 to 14 days of daily use before you're going to get I don't know, you could use them that long.

>> Yeah, I thought it was just a few days but you yes, you absolutely should.

So 10 to 14 days on those in order to get the maximum benefit and then you have to continue it.

You don't just stop it.

>> So have some people come in and tell me I picked up Flonase and I used it for a little bit on Monday and then I used it Wednesday and then I thought about it Sunday and I'm like wow, you're not really getting any benefit from that.

>> So it has to be consistent consistent use.

OK, there is a new nasal spray on the market new to over the counter not new called Asda Pro that is out and it's an antihistamine nasal spray so it does work differently.

It helps with drainage like post nasal drainage.

It'll help with congestion and it works as soon as you use it so that one can be used, hit or miss.

OK, so feel free Monday, Wednesday, Friday.

>> That way it will work for you doing it like that.

Is there any benefit to because I see the ones it's just like a sailin nasal spray does that what does that do though.

There's no real medicine in it first it's saltwater basically is what it is and it helps rinse the nasal passages.

>> It helps keep the nasal mucosa or the tissue in your nose from getting too dry and irritated.

>> Now I usually the big thing in the summer with nasal sprays when I tell people like you're mowing you're outside mowing come in, rinse your nasal passages wassailing, take a shower and all that pollen off of you and out of your nasal passages also tell people to do that like if there's like a lot of mold, a lot of rain, things like that.

If you're around pets, you know so you're visiting somebody and they've got animals come home or nasal passages change your clothes, shower and so forth.

You know SAILIN has great benefits.

Absolutely OK yeah I see that there and I've people say they use it but I thought well you can use it as much as you want and I will say it doesn't have to be like the whole neti pot production.

>> A lot of people don't care for that drowning.

>> I tried to do those but but just just like a straight bottle of saline is fine with the nice one.

Oh that comes in a can it's called simply say looks like an orange gold can and you just squirt it and you just blow your nose gently.

>> So again it doesn't have to be a big production like you're describing over a sink.

Yeah the neti pot looks a little involved.

Yeah scary to me.

My husband's used that before when he was desperate.

But the one thing though I mean there are a lot of children who have allergies and see my kids when they were little I know our doctor would say sometimes you get the sailin spray they are not going to have it like I think was just scary to them.

>> And I understand you know, if you're six, seven, eight years old, they're squirting something in your nose.

So is that even something you recommend to kids?

Absolutely I do.

But I usually tell parents when I have a child who's apprehensive about that.

Yeah, let them do it.

Oh, OK. You know, let them have the-cono when you use a nasal spray the thing with kids get to make sure they use it properly.

When you do a spray you put it in and you angle to the side spray OK so I kind of tell people it's like a W OK to make sure you go on that way in that way you don't need to do a giant sniff.

We always say if you taste it you waste oh so we have all these little cues.

>> Yeah so but no I absolutely kids can benefit from these little sprays.

>> OK great this is Heather Wilson case you're just joining us.

She is a nurse practitioner.

She specializes in allergies which is why we've been talking about allergies also asthma and immunology.

We only have her with us into a little before eight o'clock so please feel free to call in.

I'm sure some of you out there have allergy questions.

I know I've got a bunch of to ask her but we love to hear from you.

So that's why the phone numbers at the bottom of the screen we keep it up throughout the show (969) 27 two zero in case you're calling outside of Fort Wayne it's still a free call.

Just put 866- in front of there and feel free to ask Heather a question.

She's got a lot of wealth, a wealth of expertize that she can offer to you.

So you and I were talking before the show and a couple of my children were sick this week and I thought I I don't know if they have a cold.

I don't know I don't know if it was allergies and we we ended up taking them into to see our doctor but what would what advice would you give to people if they're not what can they use I guess to decipher do I need to be seen or is this just allergies?

>> It's like cold versus yeah.

Allergies or even our you know, we were I mean some people are getting really worried about covid and flu season.

>> Yeah.-And yeah.

>> So I think people have a bunch of things going on in their mind.

So the big thing typically you're not going to see a fever or body aches.

OK, so those are my big ones if you've got a fever, body aches and they call into our office we tell them to go to the walk in clinic, OK, you know that's where you should be seen.

Sure.

On the reverse if you've got somebody who has an itchy nose, itchy eyes, your ears are itchy, their throats itchy most of the time you have like a bee allergy like my my kids have says or throat can be if you've got a lot of drainage I mean if you've got post nasal drip pgoing down the back of your throat that's constantly irritating and so you can get a sore throat from that like you were describing you know with your son the red throat.

Yes.

You'll see that quite often.

>> OK, you know so take them in to the doctor if it's fever, body aches, things like that.

But otherwise I would try that over the counter meds we were talking about.

OK, and you know another thing I now I don't know if this is true or not but I had always heard if you blow your nose and it's like a runny clear mucus that's probably allergies but if it's thicker and has a yellow green color to it that usually is a sign of something more serious like an infection or cold.

I don't know if that's true.

It can be an infection not necessarily though most of the time when you wake up in the morning your drainage can be discolored.

>> Oh OK.

But if it starts to clear up throughout the day OK then I it's usually not going to be an infection and you're also not going to get an infection overnight.

OK, I usually tell patients don't call in until you've had symptoms for lie seven days.

Oh really.

Because you don't get instantly get a sinus infection OK I mean that's it's not an overnight process.

You might have a cold and yes you can have a cold that turns into an infectious type process but it's not going to be instant.

What about I mean do you get any relief from allergies just from taking an over-the-counter ibuprofen or acetaminophen or does it have to be something stronger than that?

>> It can relieve some sinus pressure, of course.

I mean you can get sinus pressure, headache, sore throat.

Yeah, but it's not going to relieve allergies.

You really need to focus on like the antihistamines or the nasal sprays or both.

A combination of both is actually your best but OK, another thing we were talking about were allergy shots.

>> Now no one in my family has ever had them but I know there are some people that get them but they have always been kind quirky to me again, you know, this is somebody I'm not I don't have a strong background in medicine at all but you know, I just thought oh, people go and they get their shot, they feel better.

>> And you were saying it's just no, it's it's like a long term it's a process thing and you don't yeah.

So I don't know if you want to talk about allergy shots and maybe who's even eligible like is that a last resort?

>> Do you try and use more conservative methods first?

It depends on the patient say we allergy test them and they're back just lights up like a Christmas tree.

>> They still so they still do that where they you know, they make the grade on your back.

You don't do a grid.

I don't know.

>> We do there's just like a little plastic bags with crystals in them and you just put it yes.

Right.

And so say they've got tons of positives.

They've already tried over the counter medications before they came to us.

>> They weren't working.

They're frustrated at that point we'd say you know what, you're a great candidate for its immunotherapies, the fancy name for it but great candidate for allergy injections.

But it's also a big commitment.

Yeah.

So people have to be ready to come in weekly for anywhere from eight to ten months and it's every two weeks for six months or so and then every three weeks and then ultimately every four but it's a minimum of a three to five year commitment and there are some people that choose to stay on it longer because they're coming in say twelve times a year but they're not having symptoms or not having you know, the recurrent sinus infections they're on minimal medication.

Maybe they take an ALEGRA every once in a while spring and fall and that's it.

And so they want to be on them .

>> Does it make them and all of the word is cure but I mean does it almost make them tolerate these these allergens that they were I don't know if it's a cure per say or if it's just you can I guess deal with desensitizing is what we call it.

>> OK, so it's not a cure per say but we're actually injecting you with what you were allergic to starting out with a very small amount and it's like a low concentration.

So you work your way through a series of vials like ah dilutions and so you do like the lowest concentration vial and you might start out with like a teeny amount and just gradually each week the injection size gets larger and larger to you max out then you move on to the next aisle and so ultimately you get to what's called a maintenance dose.

So the build up phase is that weekly for eight to ten months and then it's a maintenance dose that you get repeatedly then ongoing and I'm sure it's not really a time commitment but monetarily like I don't know is that a common thing for insurance to come o insurance?

It always does OK because I know there's a big concern for folks and understand absolutely OK good to know we've got a lot of other things we can talk about but I don't want to miss your questions so I do have somebody who who called into question Matthew did I'll go ahead and ask that but feel free to call in any time if you have other questions to ask Heather so Heather Matthew must to know he says he takes Claritin without having to have any interaction to a psychiatric medication that he is taking.

>> So if it says offline that means he hung that means yeah he's not there anymore.

OK, yeah.

So depend on what the medication is taking.

>> I mean well there are a lot of people taking this anxiety in general, depression in general.

t's probably OK I would encourage him to check with whoever prescribed that psych medication.

OK to be sure since I have no idea what was ordered for him.

>> Right.

But typically I mean I have lots of patients that are on both.

>> OK, all right.

Well that's a good question.

You know, that's another thing you and I were talking about before the show.

>> You know, a couple of my boys were sick this past week and one of them the doctor said it's probably just allergies but he was so congested and he didn't seem to be getting relief from an allergy tablet.

We given him the Claritin.

>> So I was worried.

My husband said, well, why don't we give him a decongestant as well, you know, like a cold tablet.

And I was afraid it was too much but you said and it was just an over-the-counter one so I don't know you said that it's OK to be OK. OK, probably OK.

Typically the antihistamines that are in those over-the-counter cold preps where it's like multi symptom whatever it's usually a first generation antihistamine.

So those are like your Benadryl or like you were talking about trying to time that used to be out.

So there's like losing ear I mean those are first generation antihistamines.

>> They last like four hours four to six hours and then you've got like your Zyrtec, Alegra, Zeisel, Claritin those are 24 hours so are second generation but no those cold preps it's OK to take it like that.

I wouldn't take a Zyrtec and take the cold at the same time OK I might take like a Zyrtec or Allegra in the morning and take the cold prep in the evening ok when you're trying to go to sleep becaus usually they have Benadryl like I said, it's going to make you sleepy too.

>> Yeah right.

>> Good advice.

Yeah.

You want to get some relief but you don't overdo it so you know it's never hurts to be careful.

I guess so absolutely.

And that would be a good time for saiing too before you go to bed or any time you need to have a cold like that because you know you are so congested like we talked earlie that the steroid nasal sprays aren't going to work right away.

But SAILIN does help.

It'll make you feel better.

Kind of like when you had a sore throat when you were a kid your mom told you to gargle with warm salt water.

Yeah, it's the same thing.

OK, same concept.

>> It's soothing.

Yeah.

And you know and I want to make sure we train people to call in ,ask questions they just show me a card and said we have less than ten minutes left so Heather has a wealth of expertize do you love to share with you.

We've had a couple of people call in but feel free to to call.

We're going to keep our conversation going and feel free interruptus at any time with the over-the-counter nasal sprays other but are there prescription ones is as well still some prescription?

Are those not strong?

>> Would that be make a big difference?

You're honestly not necessarily a whole lot stronger.

OK, I mean you've got Nasonex is prescription still you can't get that over the counter yet.

That's a steroid nasal spray.

>> Some insurance companies still cover some of the over the counters not all of them but some do some of them are a little pricey.

>> They can be yes.

I always look for the generics for those when you can be are those as effective?

I know a lot people are still because when I was growing up and generic was just kind of a you know, because I'm kind of old but generic is a new thing in the seventies and eighties and I would hear some nurses at our doctor's office well those can only be maybe eighty five.

>> Those might only have like eighty five percent effectiveness compared to the name brand and I don't know if that's still true today.

I don't know that that's true either to be completely honest I don't have any issues telling my patients to take a generic OK honestly it's less expensive.

I'd rather they took something yeah.

>> Something that's financially feasible for them.

Right OK yeah I just always wonder about that.

So we did have someone else call in Pam she said she must know if taking local honey will alleviate any allergy symptoms or is this an old wives tale?

>> There's some truth to that the local honey because the bees are there jumping from you know they've got pollen they're carrying but yes, there is some truth to that.

Do I tell my patients to do that?

No, no.

Because I am not trained in the That's not my background.

But yes, there is some truth to that.

>> I mean when she is that like something you just add to your tea or I mean or do a spoonful just do a spoonful like that OK. >> All right well all the toast I was say all these fall festivals and stuff going on now I always see the apple butter and the and the homemade or the honey that people harvest locally so again feel free to call.

We've got a few more a few more minutes in the show left and we have plenty of time to get a question in from what would you advise people though because if you're talking about a hard freeze around Thanksgiving time we've got a decent stretch of time.

>> What do you recommend people do as far as you know, you don't want to miss work.

You don't want to miss school but then you've got people around you if they hear you sniffling and coughing I mean all these symptoms that you wouldn't be contagious having right now.

What's your advice about about that?

I mean are there things you can take that you wouldn't make a big scene during the day at work that would give you a lot of relief?

>> What would you recommend or at school?

>> I would say if it's the allergy type symptoms that you're describing that asked to pro nasal spray the new antihistamine, one is very effective.

You can use it twice a day.

OK, and I would recommend taking like an antihistamine in the morning before school sailin like I said is very helpful in reducing you know, the nasal passages out.

Now if you know traditionally that use suffer every fall if this is your season you know this then I would recommend because it's already here I would recommend trying one of the steroid nasal sprays that are over the counter like the Nasacort or the Flonase.

I personally prefer Nasacort.

It's a water based spray.

Flonase is an alcohol based spray so it tends to be a little bit more irritating in the fragrance and Flonase smells like roses.

>> I smell that.

Yeah, it is a little different but I would absolutely say get on one of those right now because like I said it takes 10 to 14 days before you're going to get any benefit and so be proactive rather than waiting to see is this or I don't suffer if you've suffered every year for the last fifteen it's pretty likely you are going to suffer this year as well.

>> But but would you suggest waiting until you have an onset of symptoms or do you know would say get on that power?

>> Honestly, I tell my patients who are seasonal so I do have a lot of allergy patients that just have like the nasal symptoms spring and fall.

Yeah, And I'll tell them for spring because you know, now it used to be that you might not have symptoms till late April, early May and with the warmer winters that we have it's starting earlier and earlier.

So I usually say March 15th go ahead and get started on your allergy meds.

You can stop it.

You know, like mid-June if that's a normal time for you to not have issues.

But then I would get back on my meds by August fifteenth and be ready to go.

>> I was going to say, you know, there's been so because growing up my my brother had allergies that were they were really debilitating and I this is in the early seventies and we feel like he missed out on a lot of stuff.

I mean he played ball, you know, baseball and stuff like that.

There were a lot of times that he just couldn't go and I feel like today people can there are better ways to manage it.

>> I don't know if you would agree with that, but I feel like people aren't having to like stop their life right.

And I don't ever want I mean if a patient came in and told me they couldn't do anything they wanted to do.

Yeah.

I mean that's not what we want for we want you to lead a normal, healthy, productive life .

We want you to be able to do the things with your kids.

>> We want you to be able to play baseball.

We want you to play football.

So you know, definitely try the meds if they don't work come in.

That's when you should see an allergist those over the counter meds don't work then don't see us come in for testing.

>> Maybe you're an allergy shot candidate.

>> You know, let's pursue that because allergies are exhausting.

I mean if you can't breathe through your nose you're not sleeping.

Yeah.

You don't really wants to sniff all day long now and you know and I feel like ever since covid people are kind of paranoid about here.

You know, that's why I asked the question about you know, I hate to send my child to school if they're sniffling and stuff but I know they're not sick, you know, with anything contagious.

But that's such a I think we just psychologically now trained if we hear someone coughing or sneezing that it can be alarming, especially if if you're somebody who is in one of those high risk categories for covid.

>> Absolutely.

I actually have a T-shirt shirt that I wore during covid for a while that said it's just allergies here and just because we did have patients that were so upset they're like people stare at me and it's just my allergies and I know yeah.

>> I really did scar a lot of people so hopefully you know, we can move past that.

But yeah, I mean especially this time of year I'm hearing a lot of people sniffling and so forth and so I think it's too early for flu season so it's probably it's it is yeah.

>> That's a topic for another show.

So and just real quickly, do you find that allergies I don't know if they're really hereditary or do you feel that way?

>> Absolutely.

I didn't know if that was common for it to run in families or not.

It is common.

I see lots of families interesting too and I don't know how much research has been done on this but I find people that have fair skin, lighter colored hair, lighter colored eyes tend to have more symptoms as well or be more allergic.

>> Not like I said I haven't done the research on that but I have yeah I would definitely say that I have seen that for sure.

But no, I see a lot of families I'll have three and four kids from the same family that come in.

They may not all have the same type of I was going to ask if they if there might be different one might be allergic to peanuts and then you might have one that's all like outdoor allergens, you know and another one might just eczema but it's all part of the allergic march.

>> Yeah.

And that's the other thing is the food allergens you know that and that has just really growing up I never really heard of that but now it seems like it's pretty common.

It's very common.

I feel that a lot of school forms recently I can believe I can believe it.

Yeah I was just talking about that with my older boys who were in college.

I mean I used to when it was their birthday I'd buy a cake mix, I'd send in cupcakes and can't do that now everything has to be individually wrapped labeled with each package, labeled with the ingredients and we've had some years where they just didn't even allow snack in the classroom because there were some kids that were so sensitive to it it couldn't there couldn't even be an item in the classroom within the air depending on what it is.

>> Yeah, actually with food allergies one thing I do want to bring up with it being ragweed season there's something called oral allergy syndrome that a lot of people are not aware of and what happens is the pollens in the plants can cross react with the allergens that are in certain foods.

So for instance during ragweed season if you're eating melon and your mouth is itchy, you're not allergic to melon necessarily it's because of ragweed pollen.

And I know that seems kind of strange but we have a lot of people that come in and they're like I'm allergic to OK all the way through but it happens with raw vegetables and raw fruits if you cook them a lot of the times your finds like an apple pie might be OK. Good to know.

Yeah we all want to have apple pie this fall so thank you so much Heather Mills, a pleasure to have you on this time.

Thank you to all the folks who called in tonight.

Great show.

>> Take care and we'll be back next week with another HealthLine.

Have a good week.

Bye bye