I. Allegra fact file:
Allegra was first produced by the drug giant Aventis in the 1990's.
Aventis is now part of the Sanofi-Aventis Group. The Sanofi-Aventis
Group is the world's 3rd largest pharmaceutical company, ranking
number 1 in Europe. Backed by a world-class R&D organization,
Sanofi-Aventis is developing leading positions in seven major therapeutic
areas: cardiovascular disease, thrombosis, oncology, diabetes,
central nervous system, internal medicine, and
vaccines.
II. Allegra Medication:
Allegra medication is an antihistamine. Antihistamines are used for treating reactions to allergies caused by various factors like pollen, chemical odors or fumes, dust, pollution, etc.
The chemical composition of the classical antihistamines is similar to local anesthetics such as Benzocaine or Novacaine.
Antihistamines: Information
Antihistamines are basically antidotes to the body releasing histamine. As the name implies, antihistamines are able to negate the effects of histamine in your body; a kind of a peacemaker in a troubled area.
When histamine particles reach the surface of the cell, they cause inflammation (swelling) and irritation.
Antihistamines push the histamine molecules away from the cell and envelop the cell like a protective shield so that histamine cannot provoke the cell to cause an allergic reaction.
The simplest example would be when you eat a dish, which contains an ingredient that does not agree with you. It causes your skin to break out in hives and maybe even cause severe itching.
What is happening is that the ingredient in the dish caused the cells in your body to release histamine. The histamine gets onto the surface of your skin cells and causes an itchy rash. What is the best way to handle this reaction? You take a dose of antihistamine such as Allegra or Claritin. The antihistamine acts like a bodyguard. It gets rid of the histamine away from the skin cells and prevents the histamine from causing inflammation, redness and itch.
Within minutes most of the symptoms will go away.
Allergies: Information
Histamines: Information
When your body gets an allergic reaction, a series of events takes place in your body that eventually results in the release of a substance know as histamine. You can easily call histamine as the troublemaker in an allergic reaction.
Histamine causes inflammation (swelling). Histamine is very irksome to the body. If the body is given even a small amount of histamine it will cause welts or a rashes.
When the human body is exposed to something that it is allergic to, the resulting release of histamine can cause in an itchy rash, a welt, itchy eyes, watery eyes, labored breathing, runny nose, severe, life threatening form of allergic reaction known as anaphylactic shock.
For example, if you are highly allergic to something like mushroom, some kinds of seafood or penicillin, and you are exposed to this thing that you are allergic to, your body can react severely. Your tongue and throat may swell up, you may experience a severe rash all over your body and you may go into shock.
Side Effects Of Antihistamines
The most common side effect of antihistamines is drowsiness. In fact, drug companies often use antihistamines (such as Diphenhydramine or Benadryl) as an over-the-counter sleeping pill.
However, the early 1990's, scientists developed antihistamines (Claritin, Allegra) that did not cause drowsiness at the recommended doses. These drugs are expensive and were available by prescription only at first.
Cetirizine is another relatively recent antihistamine, but it is known to cause more drowsiness than Claritin or Allegra. That is why your druggist may attach a drowsiness-warning label to your bottle of Cetirizine.
Alternate Uses Of Antihistamines
The other main use of antihistamines is to help induce sleep in people having difficulty sleeping.
Drug makers add a small amount of antihistamine (usually 25 mg or 50 mg of Diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl) to pain killers and call the resulting concoction the "PM" version of the drug.
For example, Tylenol PM is simply Tylenol with a small amount of antihistamine added to induce sleepiness. Midol PM is Midol with a pinch of antihistamine added to cause drowsiness. There is also Excedrin PM, Legatrin PM, Anacin PM, etc.
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III. Useful links Government
http://www.cdc.gov/
http://www.fda.gov/
http://www.fda.gov/cder/ogd/
http://www.nih.gov/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi
http://www.health.gov.on.ca/
National Library of Medicine
World Health Organization
Health Sites
http://www.mayoclinic.com/index.cfm
MedicineNet.com
Drugdigest.org
Healthsquare.com
Pharmacy sites
Sanofi-Aventis
http://www.allegra.com
Merck
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