Respiratory allergies can cause tiredness; understand – 03/21/2023 – Balance

For the roughly 26% of adults in the United States who suffer from seasonal allergies, spring isn’t just the time to ditch your winter jacket and play outside. It also heralds the start of allergy season and the dreaded symptoms that go with it — runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes — and fatigue, says Jyothi Tirumalasetty, a clinical assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University who specializes in allergies and immunology.

But figuring out whether tiredness is the result of allergies or something else — like a cold, Covid-19 or just time changes — can be challenging because so many signs can be the same. Here are some simple ways to tell them apart.

Pay attention to your symptoms

Allergies can cause fatigue indirectly by hampering your ability to sleep, points out Tirumalasetty. A stuffy nose or slight wheezing can prevent you from falling asleep, or you may wake up with bouts of coughing. Congestion can also create a lot of pressure in the upper airways, which can make you tired, notes Joyce Yu, a pediatric allergist and immunologist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “It sends a signal to your brain that says, ‘Hey, I’m exhausted,'” she says.

An important sign that your fatigue could be caused by allergies is if you have other allergy symptoms at the same time, says Tirumalasetty. These include itchy eyes, ears, nose and throat, as well as sneezing, coughing, runny nose, watery eyes, a slight wheezing or hissing when breathing, postnasal drip and skin rashes or hives.

But “if you’re not a cough, sneeze, sniffle, fuss person, you probably don’t have allergies and your fatigue could be caused by something else,” Yu says.

Common health conditions that can cause fatigue include depression, iron deficiency, thyroid problems and sleep apnea, says Nina Mingioni, professor of medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

Respiratory infections like the common cold or even Covid-19 can also cause fatigue, says Tirumalasetty, along with other common allergy symptoms like a cough, headache, and stuffy or runny nose.

But the main symptoms that distinguish allergies from these other conditions are itchy nose, eyes and ears. If you have an upper respiratory infection, you may also have a fever, sore throat, swollen glands and muscle aches — which aren’t necessarily associated with allergies, says Yu.

The length of your symptoms could be another clue to what you have, points out Tirumalasetty. “Your regular cold will be gone within two weeks,” she says. So if you’ve been feeling unwell for weeks or months at a time, your symptoms are most likely the result of allergies.

Medications can relieve symptoms

Since fatigue is a symptom and not a medical condition itself, Mingioni says, there’s no specific treatment for it. So, to deal with fatigue, you “almost always have to address the underlying problem.”

If the sinus pressure caused by congestion is making you tired or experiencing other symptoms, such as a headache, you can treat it with over-the-counter allergy medications, such as oral antihistamines, says Yu. But they have some pros and cons.

Oral allergy medications are effective at relieving symptoms like congestion, itching and sneezing, but a significant drawback is that many cause drowsiness, points out Tirumalasetty. First-generation oral antihistamines, such as diphenhydramine or hydroxyzine, are more likely than second-generation ones, such as loratadine or cetirizine, to cause drowsiness, says Yu.

And even those labeled “non-drowsy” can still make some people sleepy, says Tirumalasetty. So it may take a few tries until you find the allergy medicine that works for you.

That said, Yu adds, “It’s definitely much more beneficial to treat your allergies than trying to avoid medications for fear of sedation”—at least in the doctor’s experience with her patients. And if your symptoms are causing fatigue by keeping you up at night, drowsiness medications may work in your favor.

Still, there are alternatives to oral remedies that can help alleviate allergy symptoms, Yu says, including saline nasal sprays or rinses and antihistamines or saline eye drops.

understand your triggers

Identifying patterns in your symptoms can help you prepare for allergy season, Yu points out. For example, if you know when fatigue and other allergy symptoms usually occur, you can start gathering your medications a few weeks or months ahead of time.

“I find keeping a diary very helpful,” says Tirumalasetty, whether it’s tracking your symptoms on your phone calendar or writing them down in a notes app or a physical notebook. An example of a note might be something like, “I was at my brother’s house and they have six cats, and now I feel itchy and tired,” she says.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves