Allergy season ~ And a note about PSA

Just a note...

I have allergy season. And I have to load up on the allergy meds. Like a couple great friends living here in Las Vegas I need them. Unlike a couple friends living here I do not get a climbing PSA when on them. I don't have a prostate so I never have a detectable PSA (and that's a good thing). But a special note about anti-histamine drugs ~ they can make your PSA shoot up. I friend of mine who has been diagnosed and is on active surveillance caused a big scare by loading up on them just as he headed to get his PSA test. His PSA doubled to over 9. He mentioned his allergies to his doctor who in turn sent him home letting him know that it is common for PSA's to shoot up when on Sudafed or Allegra, etc.. So sweating it for three months he returned for another PSA test and sure enough his PSA returned to 4.7. This is the same reading he had six years ago when he was diagnosed.

I make mention because many of us suffer from allergies. And those meds you're taking can in fact skew your PSA.

Just a note...

Tony is absolutely right, some prescription drugs can mess with your PSA test result.

He is right about antihistamines which can do this, but there are also some others which can be culprits.

When my doctor put me on a more or less permanent prescription of Omeprazole (Prilosec) last year following an esophageal ulcer diagnosis, one of the first things I did was to research the possible effect of this drug on future PSA tests.

It turned out that there was no effect by this drug, or at least none has been reported, and this seems to have been confirmed by the fact that I have still had undetectable PSAs on the two tests I have had since beginning this drug.

But a point I also want to make is that I really had to so some digging to find out that the Omeprazole would not be skewing my result. I finally found this information on a Q&A page on Dr. Catalona's site, where he himself said flatly that it would have no effect. But it seems that sometimes you may have to dig a little to find out if a med does or does not impact PSA. I found that references to the PSA test are not always automatically given when talking about a given drug on impact-of-drug type websites.

But to re-emphasize Tony's point, if you do get an unexpectedly high PSA result reported back to you following a test, and you know you haven't done any of the usual influences (bike-riding, sex, etc.), do ask yourself if you have been taking any kind of drug, even an OTC one, that just might have "messed with" that PSA result.

Greenville SC area, is one of the nations worse (if not worse) area to live for outdoor allergies. I don't know why, I am one of the few people I know here, that has zero issues with allergies. Never have the runny eyes or nose, etc. Don't know how I lucked out there. But I am the same weirdo that has no allergic reaction to either poison ivy or poison oak. Must be something unique in my immune system protecting me from those issues.

D.