HappyLifestyleJournal
Are you one of those 2% of Americans who simply love cats but are allergic to them? Besides being unable to pet your furry friend, you also have to suffer the consequences every time you are in the same room with it, or when it leaves some hair on your clothes.
Well, you don’t have to go through too much trouble as there are ways to win the war against cat allergy and go anywhere you want without the fear of having itches, red puffy eyes, sneeze attacks or shortage of breath.
When people are allergic to cats, they are overly sensitive to their hair, skin cells, saliva and all the other proteins that cause the release of the human immune system protein called histamine, which is really responsible for the mentioned symptoms. Well, these symptoms may not appear again if you do the following things:
1. Don’t let your cat sleep with you. Wash your bedding and pillows, or buy new ones. Then use plastic covers that are specifically made to be anti-allergenic, so they could keep the cat’s allergens from getting into your mattress or linens. It will take time to reduce these allergens, but it is a process worth going through. You can buy these covers at medical supply outlets.
2. Brush your cat before letting it into the room you spend most of your time in. It would be particularly good if you could let your cat go outside for a while, and some of its hair and dandruff will fall off thanks to the running and the wind. Then before letting it into the house brush the excess hair off and you will reduce the levels of allergens.
3. Eliminate furniture that attracts allergens. Upholstered furniture and rugs attract a 100 times more allergens than hardwood floors, so if you are allergic to cats and want to get rid of as many allergens as possible get rid of the rugs and such furniture, and stick to hard and non-absorbing ones.
4. Switch to an allergen-proof vacuum cleaner. To achieve maximum efficiency, you should definitely switch to this kind of vacuum cleaner because regular vacuuming doesn’t really get rid of the allergens. A vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter would also be convenient.
5. Let the air in. Fresh air will lower the possibility of getting the symptoms of your allergy, especially considering that allergens are trapped and tend to expand when they are in a closed warm room. Open windows are the best solution for dealing with such allergies. You should also make sure the air in your house is clean, which can be achieved using a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter.
6. Get rid of the cat’s dander.After giving your cat a bath or brushing it, you should get rid of all the hair and all what’s left on the towel or brush. You should wash the towel on high temperature and sanitize the brush. Since it is highly impractical to bathe your cat daily, even though that would be good if you wanted to reduce the amount of allergens as much as possible, you could use cleansing wipes instead which are effective when it comes to removing saliva and dander from your cat’s hair, and less stressful for the cat who doesn’t really like being bathed.
7. Become resistant. Since there are no permanent cures to beat cat allergy, you can only hope to build up resistance, and you can do so by taking immunotherapy which includes getting allergy- shots for around 6 months, twice a week, and then only sporadically. For some, these shots work very well, but some need to continue treatment for several years, so the best thing for them would be avoiding cats altogether – if they think it isn’t worth the time and effort.
Making these changes isn’t easy and making progress requires effort and commitment. However, if you consider how much easier your life would be if you didn’t have to deal with the allergy symptoms, you will agree that these steps are worth taking.
