Allergy symptoms depend upon the individual and the allergens involved; they can affect your eyes, airways, sinuses, nasal passages and skin. The most common allergy symptoms are:
- Itchy eyes
- Red eyes
- Watery eyes
- Swollen eyes/eyelids
- Dry eye
- Dark circles under eye
- Ocular Foreign body sensation
- Ocular irritation
- Ocular Discomfort
- Burning eye
- Nasal congestion
- Post nasal drip
- Sinus issues
- Headaches
- Asthma
- Runny nose
- Itchy nose
- Eczema
- Sneezing
- Sore/scratchy throat
- Tiredness/lethargy/loss of energy
- Cough
- Itchy Skin
You can have environmental allergies and not have any of the above symptoms*; alternatively, you may have one, two, three or more of the above symptoms. "Symptoms" are subjective and extremely variable. It's great if you don't suffer with symptoms which make you uncomfortable, but if you have proven allergies (on proper objective medical testing) there are health benefits to addressing the inflammation that allergies cause. Inflammation secondary to environmental allergies, even in people who are symptom free, adversely affects your eyes, eyelids, and the rest of your body. Often, people who were previously unaware of their allergies report feeling much healthier, in ways they hadn't anticipated, after being treated for their allergies.
When you have dry eye, anything that causes additional irritation and inflammation of your eyes (i.e. environmental allergies) makes it much harder to manage and treat your dry eye.
Our goal is to optimize the health of your eyes and eyelids (and the rest of your body). We strive to identify and treat all conditions causing irritation and inflammation that can adversely affect your eyes’ long-term health, comfort and your vision (i.e. dry eye, blepharitis, meibomian gland dysfunction, glaucoma, ocular rosacea, environmental allergies, etc.).
*Of note: some people don’t report any symptoms because the way they feel is their “normal”, and yet they have allergies.
