Introduction
Allergy is a widespread disease. Especially in spring and summer many people suffer from “hay fever“, i.e. an allergy to pollen. If sore throats are added to the already existing allergic symptoms such as an itchy nose, watery eyes and a chesty cough, the person affected finds it extremely unpleasant. But how does an allergy manage to cause a sore throat and what can be done to relieve the symptoms? Find out everything about allergies here
Causes of sore throat in case of allergy
It is known that there are different ways for allergenic substances to enter the body. These are usually the respiratory tract and its mucous membranes or – in the case of contact allergies, e.g. nickel allergy – the skin or mucous membrane. If the allergens come into contact with immune cells here, they ensure the release of inflammation-promoting molecules and messenger substances via biochemical interactions.
These ensure increased blood circulation and a higher permeability of the blood vessel walls. As a result, the mucous membrane in this area swells and edemas can form. The mucosa is also more easily irritated and more sensitive to pain. Pain and irritation can therefore be triggered by even minor stimuli. These can also be stimuli that are not normally perceived as painful or unpleasant, such as coughing or clearing your throat.
Diagnosis
If the sore throat is suspected to be caused by an allergy, the patient’s complaints and symptoms should first be worked out and classified in a conversation. In medicine, this process of talking to the doctor is called “anamnesis”. In addition, the area of the throat can be mirrored in order to identify any sore spots in this area.
In addition, general allergy diagnostics is also useful, e.g. a prick or scratch test. In this test, possible allergens are placed directly on and in the skin to provoke an allergic reaction. This can confirm or at least substantiate an allergic cause of the sore throat.
Accompanying symptoms of allergy-related sore throat
A sore throat as such is already one of the symptoms that can be triggered by an allergy. In order to classify sore throats correctly, further accompanying symptoms should be looked for. For example, in the case of an allergy, such accompanying symptoms include As the allergy-induced sore throat is triggered by an allergy affecting the respiratory tract, the main symptoms are also to be expected in this area.
- Itching in the nose, middle ear or the connecting structure between the two body cavities, the tuba auditiva
- Allergic asthma (more or less sudden respiratory distress caused by narrowed airways)
- Eye itching, tearing or sticking
- Skin eczema
Swallowing problems are all problems that affect swallowing. Accordingly, a number of partly very different symptoms can be found in this category. In the case of allergy-related sore throat, swallowing difficulties are usually caused by the irritated and sore mucous membrane in the area of the larynx.
This can be further irritated by swallowing. A further problem can be the narrowing of the airways in the throat area. Since swallowed substances take the same path in the upper respiratory tract as the air we breathe, this area can become narrowed by allergens and thus make it more difficult to swallow.
Of course, it can happen that a cold overlaps with the symptoms of an allergy and both cause complaints at the same time. Often, however, the sore throat caused by an allergy can be distinguished from the symptoms of a cold. While an allergy usually occurs seasonally or regionally, for example only at certain times of the year (pollen allergy) or in certain rooms (house dust or animal hair allergy), sore throats caused by a cold are largely independent of such external factors. In addition, in the case of an allergy, some of the symptoms described above, such as itchy nose or sticky eyes, usually occur in addition to the sore throat. A cold, on the other hand, tends to be accompanied by symptoms such as coughing with mucous sputum and thick lymph nodes in the throat.
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