Go ask anyone who starts to snort and sniffle when pollen is high and the smell of fresh cut grass wafts through the air, and they'll tell you, antihistamines are a godsend.
Antihistamine medication is used to stop allergic reactions. Histamines in the body cause fluid to escape from capillaries resulting in swelling, itching, and sneezing.
But those beloved antihistamines, most of which you can get over-the-counter without a doctor's note, might come with a heavy price to pay -- weight-gain.
Writing in the journal Obesity, experts found an association between antihistamine use and weight-gain. Individuals taking prescription antihistamines were more likely to be obese or overweight, than individuals not taking the drugs.
In the study, among the 268 antihistamine users, 45% of study participants were overweight, compared to all 599 of the people involved in the study, where only 30% were overweight. Antihistamine users had a higher body mass index (BMI) than non users, weighing in at 31 and 28 respectively.
A BMI 25 to 29 is considered overweight, anything higher is obese. Obesity starts with a BMI of 30 and up.
But, the researchers involved with this study urge that the results do not say antihistamines cause weight-gain, only that there is an association between weight-gain and taking antihistamines.
Other medications can cause weight-gain, and I know this firsthand with anti-depressants. Some experts say medications like Prozac, Lexapro, Paxil, and Zoloft can cause weight-gain of 10 pounds or more.
Image credit: Rakka
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