Treatment
OAS must be managed in conjunction with the patient's other allergies, primarily the allergy to pollen. The symptom severity may wax and wane with the pollen levels. Published pollen counts and seasonal charts are useful but may be ineffective in cases of high wind or unusual weather, as pollen can travel hundreds of kilometers from other areas. The syndrome will abate within 2–3 years if the patient moves to an area free of the triggering pollen. Moving usually results in the development of allergy to the local pollens.
In addition, patients are advised to avoid the triggering foods, particularly nuts.
Peeling or cooking the foods has been shown to eliminate the effects of some allergens such as mal d 1 (apple), but not others such as celery or strawberry. In the case of foods such as hazelnut, which have more than one allergen, cooking may eliminate one allergen but not the other.
Antihistamines may also relieve the symptoms of the allergy by blocking the immune pathway. Persons with a history of severe anaphylactic reaction may carry an injectable emergency dose of epinephrine (such as an EpiPen). Oral steroids may also be helpful. Allergy immunotherapy has been reported to improve or cure OAS in some patients. Immunotherapy with extracts containing birch pollen may benefit OAS sufferers of apple or hazelnut related to birch pollen-allergens. Even so, the increase in the amount of apple/hazelnut tolerated was small (from 12.6 to 32.6 g apple), and as a result, a patient's management of OAS would be limited.
Read more about this topic: Oral Allergy Syndrome
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