Evangeline For most mild to moderate food allergies, loratadine tablets are useful, but they only respond to specific allergic scenarios and are completely useless when it comes to severe allergies. Do not use it as a life-saving medicine.
A while ago, my cousin took two bites of underripe kiwi fruit. Within ten minutes, the area around her mouth became swollen and shiny, and there were patches of wheals on her arms, which made her scratch. Apart from these, she felt no other discomfort. She went home and took a 10mg tablet of loratadine, drank two large glasses of warm water and lay down for two hours. The swelling was almost gone, and the itching was basically gone. In fact, the symptoms of red and itchy skin, swollen mucous membranes, and wheals caused by eating foods you are allergic to are mostly caused by the release of a large amount of histamine after the immune system is stimulated. Loratadine is a commonly used second-generation antihistamine drug. It has few side effects and rarely causes drowsiness. It can bind to receptors before histamine can, which is equivalent to occupying the seat of the "troublemaker", so naturally it is unable to cause symptoms.
But don’t think of loratadine as a panacea for allergies. If you encounter a severe allergic reaction, it won’t help at all and may even delay treatment. When I was helping in a community emergency department, I met a high school student who was allergic to milk. He secretly drank half a cup of milk tea with milk at noon. At first, he just developed a rash. He took a tablet of loratadine and went to school. Within half an hour, he felt out of breath and his throat was blocked. His lips were purple when his classmates brought him the drug. He quickly gave him epinephrine to help him recover. This severe allergic reaction, which has affected the respiratory tract and circulatory system, progresses very quickly. It takes at least 20 to 30 minutes for loratadine to take effect, which cannot keep up with the progression of the disease, nor can it relieve fatal symptoms such as laryngeal edema and hypotension. At this time, injecting epinephrine immediately is the only effective way.
Many people also say that taking loratadine for food allergies is completely useless. This situation is actually normal. First, if your allergic symptoms are only gastrointestinal manifestations such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting, and no skin or mucous membrane-related symptoms, it is most likely not a histamine-mediated allergic reaction, and taking antihistamines will naturally not cause symptoms.； Secondly, if you don’t remember to take medicine for several hours after an allergic attack, the histamine has almost bound to the receptors, and the effect of taking medicine will definitely be greatly reduced at this time.
By the way, I would like to mention that loratadine only relieves symptoms and does not help you cure food allergies. Even if the symptoms disappear quickly after taking the medicine, don’t touch the food you are allergic to next time. Maybe the allergic reaction next time will be much worse than this time. There are clear food allergens, and it is safest to avoid them as much as possible.
