Can Stress Make Allergies Worse?

Allergies are the fifth most-common chronic disease in the United States today, but it's not just dust mites and pollen that trigger the histamines that cause nasal congestion and sneezing. It appears that just a little bit of anxiety and stress can greatly increase a person's reaction to common allergens.

A new study, being presented at the American Psychological Association annual meeting in Boston, estimates that Americans pay more than $3.4 billion annually for allergy-related doctor visits and allergy medicines, and lose about 3.5 million workdays a year due to allergies. "Allergies are not minor problems," according to researcher Jan Diecolt-Glaser, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University. "A huge number of people suffer from allergies and, while hay fever, for example, is generally not life-threatening, allergy sufferers often also have asthma, which can be deadly."

This allergy study looked at 28 volunteers that had a history of seasonal allergies and hay fever. They gave standard allergy prick tests to these volunteers, then measured the raised "wheals" that formed on the arms of the volunteers before and after they were put into stressful situations, such as answering quite a few math questions or giving a speech. They were also tested again the next day.

Glaser stated that the wheals on a person who had been moderately anxious were shown to be 75 percent larger after this experiment, compared to that same volunteers response on the days that they were not put in stressful situations. This signifies a stronger reaction. The volunteers that were highly anxious had wheals that were twice as big after they had been put in a stressful situation compared to their response when they were calm. So, these same volunteers were four times more likely to have a much stronger reaction to the skin test the second day after the stress.

On the second day, the "late-phase reaction" signals the ongoing and strengthening of the volunteer's response to the allergens. This suggests that many sufferers may react strongly to other stimuli that previously did not cause them to have an allergic reaction. The co-investigator for the study, Gailen Marshall, a professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of Mississippi, stated that the late-phase reactions typically do not respond to the common allergy treatments such as antihistamines. "Late-phase reactions also occur in allergic asthma and can, in the proper settings, be potentially life-threatening, The results of this study should alert practitioners and patients alike to the adverse effects of stress on allergic reactions in the nose, chest, skin and other organs that may seemingly resolve within a few minutes to hours after starting, but may reappear the next day when least expected," he advised.

Therefore, allergy sufferers may be setting themselves up to have more persistent problems with their allergies by being anxious and stressed when all allergy attack begins.