[saltybytes]

I was surprised to not find anything about possible cures or treatments in the article.

I had bad allergies myself in my teenage years - unable to sleep for weeks - I finally sought help. The western medicine offers protein shots (similar treatment as to food allergies) but I heard good things about acupuncture. First, I was very skeptical about how needles could "help" with allergies. But about 2 months into the treatment (two sessions per week) the pollen season started. The air felt "heavy to breathe" but to my surprise I was not effected that year at all. After finishing the whole treatment I was allergy free for many years. Now I sometimes feel it on bad days with clouds of pollen hanging in humid air. My uneducated guess is, that my acupuncture treatment I received over 2 decades ago "wears off".

I wonder if others experienced similar or if I was a statistical outlier to a well shaped Gauss curve?

[ilivethere]

> Medicine is another prong to the attack, with the development of new treatments to better ease the symptoms of pollen exposure. One Japanese trial, for example, showed a long-acting under-the-tongue immunotherapy tablet was were still helping alleviate symptoms two years after treatment. Other scientists have even been experimenting with genetically modified rice designed to alleviate allergy symptoms.

There is. Sorta

[packetlost]

My understanding is allergies can be partially managed with placebo affect (as can mild colds!) and that is likely the reason it appears to work.

[BobaFloutist]

I also understand that weight lifting can help reduce allergies, since the immune system is kind of a "luxury" system that cedes resources when the body is recovering from injury, and weightlifting is deliberate minor injury.

Maybe acupuncture could work through the same mechanism?

[packetlost]

Maybe during treatment, but that mechanism wouldn't work months after stopping the treatment.

[amake]

I live in Japan and developed an allergy to cedar pollen after I came. I started sublingual immunotherapy (a pill of concentrated pollen you dissolve under your tongue) three years ago and now can make it through the pollen season symptom-free. Supposedly you even keep the immunity after stopping the medication, though I have not tested that yet.

[agos]

I did sublingual immunotherapy for gramineae and while the immunity does wane with years and in particularly bad years (like this one) you'll get symptoms it's still waaaaay better than before

[indoordin0saur]

The article specifically mentions medical treatments.