I used to have severe environmental allergies to cats, dogs, and the outdoors. As I kid, I woke up crying most mornings because of my allergies, and I would occasionally wake up with croup and difficulty breathing. I even had to be taken the hospital once.
Anyways, I cried enough that my mother found and enrolled me in a study for an experimental treatment called sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT). For the next two years I took under-the-tongue drops, and I presume the drops were formulated with small amounts of the allergens I was reactive to.
My allergies have been nearly non-existent since then.
I’m sharing this post because I keep telling people about sublingual immunotherapy and they’re very surprised. No one seems to know about this treatment! I’m mad about this.
Maybe my improvement was unusual? I don’t know. A few random studies. Please share additional information in the comments.
To be clear, I still have a few mild symptoms:
- If I pet a dog and then rub my eyes, my eyes get slightly itchy.
- If a dog licks me, I get mild hives in that area.
But that’s all! (And I haven’t observed any side effects, either.)
FWIW, I might also go back on sublingual immunotherapy at some point so I can pet dogs without worry. (Because maybe my treatment was stopped too soon?)
Other details:
- My mother says the particular drops I took costed $25 a week. They weren’t FDA approved, but they were still available for purchase.
- From a quick brief search, I found a few that sell sublingual immunotherapy in the US: Wyndly, Curex, and Quello. I looked a few months ago and I couldn’t find any significant reason to prefer one brand over the others. Please comment you have a recommendation.
- Note: SLIT has been available for longer in Europe than in the US, so the European brands might be better if you have access to them.
My understanding (based on watching some YouTube lectures and talking to my allergists) is that SCIT (aka allergy shots) and SLIT are equally effective but (at least in the US) SLIT is not covered by insurance so SCIT ends up being a lot cheaper for most people. The main problem with SCIT is that it requires going to the allergy clinic every week for a while, then every month for a while over a period of about 3 years (but it is possible to speed things up quite a bit by doing cluster shots or double shots). I tried doing SCIT last year but my chronic illness made it too difficult to go to the clinic each week so I eventually had to stop (I imagine this won't be a problem for most other people). My allergy clinic gave me an estimate that SLIT would cost roughly $7000 total over 3 years, whereas SCIT for me was free with my insurance.
How were you getting SLIT for $25/week, how much did SLIT cost in total for you, and were the doses tailored to your particular allergies based on tests?
Interesting, I don't know anything about the quality of different SLIT manufacturers, but $2600 sounds a lot more affordable than $7000. I'll try to remember to ask my allergist about this if I ever see them again.