Ohio State University Medical Center researchers have discovered that stress and anxiety can linger and have a major impact on a person’s allergies, making allergic reactions worse the next day. It’s an important finding, because medications containing allergy-blocking antihistamines don’t deal with such “delayed” symptoms caused by weakened immunity. More, the study revealed that stressed patients often are unresponsive to treatments such as antihistamines.

Allergic reactions are the fifth most common chronic disease in America; medical costs to treat them can reach $3.4 billion a year. Researchers hope that the results of the new study will alert practitioners and patients to the adverse effects of stress, which may seemingly resolve within minutes or hours after an attack, only to unexpectedly reappear the next day. Learning to manage psychological stress should have a positive effect on the immune system and help keep allergies under control.