Do persons with allergies get more colds?

[sneezomania]

Considering various things I've read at the SFF and experienced elsewhere, it seems to me that people who suffer from seasonal allergies (e.g. hay fever) get colds outside allergy season quite often, more than people without allergies. Now my question: Is it like this, or was it rather coincidentally in the cases I observed? Could it be that the immune system of an allergy sufferer is infected in a way that it doesn't protect him / her against colds like the immune system of a non-allergy sufferer does?

Just like to know ...

[sneezerwoman]

Sometimes I get a batch of colds but not often, right now it's been allergies.

[resolution]

Well I think it's been observed that many tend to sneeze more when they get them.

[Trillium]

I believe it depends on whether the particular person's nasal allergies are well controlled or not.

If nasal allergies are not well controlled and the person is exposed frequently or constantly to what they're allergic to, then the nasal mucosa is in a frequent or constant state of inflammation. Inflamed membranes may be more permeable to cold viruses. Also, if you lump sinus infections in with colds, a person with poorly controlled allergies will also be more susceptible to sinus infections, again because of the constant state of nasal mucosal inflammation and the tendency for the sinus openings to swell shut and create a dark, warm place for bacteria to breed in the sinuses.

If nasal allergies are well controlled (either by medication, allergy shots, or by fairly successful allergen avoidance), then the person would probably not be as susceptible to cold virus infection.

Remember that in allergies, a person's immune system is hyperreactive (or, reacts too much) and reacts in an abnormal (allergic) fashion to otherwise innocuous substances. An allergic person's immune system still will mount a normal immune response to cold viruses or bacteria separate and apart from their abnormal, allergic response to allergens.

Make sense?

[sneezomania]

Make sense?

Well, probably ... thanks for your response anyway.

The interesting thing for me is that persons with seasonal allergies seem to get many colds outside allergy season, so at a time when their immune system isn't attacked by allergens. That's what I like to find out - whether there's an explanation for that or whether my observations were just coincidentally.