How are allergies treated? Is there any permanent cure? I have to live on antihistamines for my rash that keeps flaring up for no apparent reason.

The treatment of an acute allergic reaction will depend on where it occurs, its severity, and its duration. Antihistamine drugs are the mainstay of treatment and may be given by tablet, mixture, injection or cream. They are best used early in the course of an allergic reaction or if an exposure to an allergy-provoking situation is expected. Unfortunately, in past years only sedating antihistamines were available, which caused drowsiness as an unacceptable side effect, but now a wide range of safe and effective non-sedating antihistamines are available.

Once the reaction is established, a severe attack may require steroid tablets or injections, adrenaline injections, or, in very severe cases, emergency resuscitation. Other drugs may be used in specific allergy situations (eg. lung-opening drugs in acute asthma).

There are a number of substances that can be used on a regular basis to prevent certain allergic reactions. These include sodium cromoglycate (Intal and Opticrom) and nedocromil sodium (Tilade—asthma spray only) which may prevent hay fever, asthma and allergic conjunctivitis if used several times a day throughout the allergy season (often spring). They are available as inhalers, nasal sprays and eye drops.

A small number of patients are so allergic to certain substances (eg. bee stings or ant bites) that they must carry an emergency supply of an injectable drug (usually adrenaline) with them at all times, and must inject themselves it they suspect that they have been exposed to the allergic substance.

Once the substances that cause an allergy in an individual have been identified, further episodes of allergic reaction may be prevented by desensitisation. This involves giving extremely small doses of the allergy-causing substance to the patient, and then slowly increasing the dose over many weeks or months until the patient can tolerate the substance at the maximum likely exposure level. The desensitisation is normally given by weekly injections.

If you can find out what is causing your allergy reaction, it may be possible to have a course of desensitisation, and be cured.

What is the best cure for a cold? I get several a year, and I end up in bed for a week every time. Medical science must be able to do something to help me!
If you catch a cold, there is nothing a doctor can do to cure it. He or she can certainly prescribe medications to ease the symptoms and make you feel more comfortable, but please do not pester him or her for antibiotics, because they do not help the problem at all.
The more you rest, the faster the problem will go away. Those who insist on working while feverish and miserable prevent the body from building up its defences rapidly, and pass the infection on to their work mates.
Aspirin or paracetamol, rest at home and medications for the cough, sore throat, runny nose and blocked sinuses are the best remedy. The usual cold will last for a week, but some people are luckier and have a brief course, while others are particularly unlucky, and the first cold may so lower their defences that they can catch another one, and then another, causing cold symptoms to last for many weeks.
Many vitamin and herbal remedies are touted as cures or preventatives for colds, but when subjected to detailed trials, none of them can be proven. If any medication, vitamin or herb could be found to help this condition, the entire medical profession would be delighted to recommend it.

I keep getting one cold after another. Why does it always have to be me?
You are just very unlucky. Several hundred viruses can cause a cold. Once one virus infects you, you should develop life-long resistance, but because there are so many possible causes, you will still catch colds. Gradually your resistance to infection will improve though, and colds will occur less frequently.
Because they have not been exposed to many viruses, children develop more colds than adults. Unfortunately, once you do catch a cold, it becomes easier to develop a second one. This second cold knocks you about even further, weakening you so that a third one can be caught. This unpleasant chain of events can sometimes continue for months.
Some people also have genetic factors that either protect them or make them more susceptible to viral infections. Stress, both physical and mental, can also reduce the body’s resistance to infection. Extremes of temperature are a cause of stress, and an indirect cause of recurrent colds.