South Bay SD News

• About 50 million Americans suffer from allergies each year.
• Allergic reactions can vary from mild irritation to severe discomfort, with symptoms including sneezing, a runny nose, and itchy, watery, or swollen eyes.
• Allergies and sinusitis share many of the same symptoms, often exacerbating each other and making both conditions worse.

As the season changes to summer, it is important to remember how allergies can change with the season and how they can impact someone’s health. According to Dr. Paul Schalch Lepe of SoCal Breathe Free, the allergies and sinusitis often go hand-in-hand. 

“Allergies are a very important contributing factor to sinusitis,” Dr. Schalch Lepe told the South Bay SD News. “What allergy basically means is that your immune system is overreacting to environmental factors that most people otherwise just adapt to and don't have to overreact to. We know that allergies have to do with environmental factors such as pollen from trees, grass, and other plants.”

While spring allergies may subside as trees and flowers finish blooming, summer allergies triggered by weeds and grasses become the next concern for allergy sufferers. According to WebMD, one of the most common allergy triggers in the summer is ragweed. Its pollen can travel hundreds of miles on the wind, affecting areas far beyond where it originally grew.

The 50 million Americans who suffer from seasonal allergies may experience sneezing, coughing, congestion, itchy eyes, a runny nose, and fatigue, according to Yale Medicine. 

To diagnose allergies, doctors will typically review a patient’s symptoms and medical history and then recommend either a blood test or a skin test, according to WebMD. For a skin test, the doctor will place a small amount of the allergen on the patient's skin, typically on the forearm or back. If the patient is allergic to that particular allergen, a small, itchy bump will appear.

According to Yale Medicine, the other option is a blood test, where the patient's blood is drawn and analyzed for allergens in a lab. Although this method takes longer, it enables doctors to test for a wider range of allergies compared to a skin test. 

Sinusitis can be caused by viruses, bacteria, fungus and allergies. If symptoms persist for longer than three months, the condition is classified as chronic sinusitis.

According to SoCal Breathe Free's website, Dr. Paul Schalch Lepe is an otolaryngologist and ENT doctor based in San Diego. His specialties include sinus, allergy, and sleep treatments. Dr. Schalch Lepe completed his residency in otolaryngology at UC Irvine Medical Center, affiliated with UC Irvine School of Medicine. He earned his medical degree from the School of Medicine at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City.