Sensitivity to salicylates is known for a long time because the drugs based on them (aspirin, acetylsalicylic acid) have long been used in medicine. The widespread use of antipyretics based on salicylates, as well as the presence of substances in most food products, leads to their massive intake into the body. The proportion of intolerance is up to 30% of the total number of food allergies.
Symptoms of Sensitivity to Salicylates
The symptomatology of a pathological condition depends on which organ system suffered more. Statistically, there are signs of shortness of breath, dry wheezes, cough, difficulty exhaling. Symptoms occur soon after the use of medicines or foodstuffs with salicylates and persist for 1-3 days, provided no new intake of the allergen into the body. People with asthma may develop an attack, its severity depends on the dose of salicylic acid.
Manifestations of a dermal form of salicylate sensitivity are reduced to itching, rash, and other skin reaction. Usually, the symptoms persist for 2-5 hours, then completely disappear. Pollinous type is characterized by the occurrence of nasal congestion, sneezing, lacrimation, a sensation of rubbing in the eyes, headache. The duration of the disease state is from 5-10 hours to 2-4 days.
Abdominal forms of salicylate sensitivity are manifested by pain in the epigastric region a few hours after the use of drugs or food with salicylates. Their intensity varies, the character is mostly aching or searing. Sometimes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and other dyspeptic disorders are possible. This condition persists for several hours, but with the addition of complications (gastritis, ulcers), its duration may increase. The edematous type is characterized by a noticeable edema of the face, neck, eyelids and distal limbs shortly after the intake of salicylic acid. The disappearance of the edema may take several days.
Treatment of Sensitivity to Salicylates
In allergology, therapeutic measures for salicylate sensitivity are divided into symptomatic and preventive. The main condition for preventive treatment is the exclusion of the intake of compounds of the class of salicylic acid. Salicylates symptomatic treatment is aimed at lowering the level of histamine in tissues and its activity, which allows to reduce manifestations of pathology. Treatment includes:
- Special diet. The decrease in the proportion of products containing salicylates in the diet is the main component of preventive therapy. Salicylic acid, and its derivatives are found mainly in plant foods like fruits, nuts, some vegetables and spices.
- Attentive selection of Creams and Perfumes. A number of cosmetic and external medicinal products contain salicylates, including as an auxiliary substance. Therefore, when choosing a cream or ointment, you should carefully read its composition.
- Use of NAET method: the allergic phenomenon is an adverse response of a particular individual to a given substance. But if everyone does not react in the same way to the substance in question, then it is not everyone who is in question, but the individual himself. It is therefore an internal dysfunction that must be remedied.
- Organ-specific therapy. When asthma attacks, bronchodilator agents are used (beta-adrenoreceptor agonists and others). Symptoms of the full-fledged sensitivity to salicylates are facilitated with the help of vasoconstrictive drops and nasal sprays. If the stomach is affected, antacids will be effective.
