Allergy season is here — and it’s here with a vengeance.

I’ve had patients who never had allergies before start experiencing them this year for the first time — and if you’ve got the sniffles yourself, you already know exactly what they’re going through.

Thanks to a mild winter in most of the country, pollen was out in force earlier than ever — and new CDC numbers show just how much we’re suffering.

In March, close to 20 percent of people surveyed by the agency reported allergy symptoms. That compares to less than 15 percent in 2010 and 16.5 percent in 2011.

The numbers were so high the agency said they matched what we normally see this month, in May.

And in April, the allergy reports were up about 10 percent over the previous year.

Those numbers confirm what I’ve seen in my practice, as more people show up with allergies than ever before — including many who say they’ve never had so much as a sniffle in the past.

But let’s face reality here. Most people don’t even bother telling their doctors about allergies. It’s just too easy to go to the store and pick up an over-the-counter antihistamine.

Plenty of people take them, and some even swear by them. But they’re expensive, don’t work for everyone, and come with a potential for side effects ranging from dry mouth to drowsiness.

There are much better ways to beat allergies for good and help you breathe easy all year long. Here at my Stengler Center for Integrative Medicine, for example, we use homeopathic remedies to desensitize people to the pollens causing their symptoms.

It’s so much easier — not to mention safer — than allergy shots.

The homeopathic remedies allium cepa and/or nux vomica can help with the classic hay fever symptoms, such as sneezing and runny nose. For symptoms more in your eyes, I recommend a homeopathic remedy made from the eyebright plant, called euphrasia.

In addition, butterbur supplements have shown in studies to be as effective as some of the top-selling over-the-counter allergy remedies, but at a fraction of the price.

Want to be smart? Follow your mother’s advice and don’t forget to take your vitamins — because even the basics can deliver noticeable and almost immediate benefits.

No part of the body responds quicker to good nutrition than the brain, and a series of new studies show how quality supplements can give you the boost you’ve been looking for in a matter of weeks — helping you to think sharper, quicker, and better than ever.

Start with the second letter of the alphabet — B vitamins.

In one of the studies, men given a high-dose B complex for 33 days improved on tests measuring mood, stress, and cognitive performance, and reported being less “mentally tired” after taking those tests.

The study was on men, but I have no doubt the benefits would apply to women as well because B vitamins such as B6, B12, and folate have proven time and again to help protect the brain.

But they’re also water soluble, which means your body doesn’t store them. They literally go right through you — in your mouth and out your urine, which is why it’s not enough to get them only some of the time.

You need to make sure you get them every single day.

Along with those B vitamins, be sure to take a quality multi — because another recent study found that women who took them for nine weeks had a boost in multitasking abilities.

More specifically, they had improved accuracy and faster responses while multitasking… and, as a bonus, they had lower levels of the inflammation marker homocysteine.

Again, there’s no reason these benefits wouldn’t apply to men and women alike. Just make sure your multivitamin comes from a maker you trust, and not the local dollar store.

And while you’re at it, be sure to take some fish oil. The omega-3 fatty acids are great for the brain, especially DHA. In one recent study, adults who took between 1 and 2 grams of DHA a day saw improvements in blood flow in the brain while engaged in cognitive tasks.

Of course, none of these supplements are miracle pills. They’re not going to magically undo the damage of an unhealthy lifestyle, but they’re an important part of the big picture — both in the short term and over the long haul.

Your own needs will depend on your diet, lifestyle, and even genetic factors that might make it more difficult for you to hold onto certain nutrients. A holistic doctor can run some tests to help you figure you which ones you need, how much you need, and the best way to get them.

If you’re taking diabetes meds, there’s an urgent new warning out there that you just have to see.

Public Citizen is urging the FDA to ban the drug Victoza because of links to thyroid cancer, pancreatitis, and severe allergic reactions.

In addition, Public Citizen says patients who take this injectable med have quadruple the risk of acute pancreatitis of those who take other diabetes meds. The group estimates that up to 2,000 patients have gotten the condition from the drug since it was approved in 2010.

Naturally, the company that makes the drug insists that it’s safe. What else would they say? I’ve haven’t seen a drug maker yet respond to a safety warning with an apology.

But the drug’s own label tells me this stuff is bad news. It says right on it that it has caused thyroid cancer in lab animals — and while it also says it’s unclear whether that risk extends to humans, that’s clear enough for me.

If you’re a patient taking this med — and with $1 billion in sales last year, I know plenty of patients are — talk to your doctor about your other options.

Of course, most doctors will just shift you from one bad med to another. And if you have diabetes, odds are you’re taking several bad meds at the same time.

That’s why I recommend that diabetics work with a holistic doctor instead — because in many cases, holistic doctors can help their patients find the natural alternatives that can reduce their meds.

Considering the risks of these meds, fewer is better. But there’s something even better than fewer — and that’s none at all.

You’ve heard that you can’t cure diabetes, but you heard wrong. By committing to healthy lifestyle changes, you can reach the point where you’ll no longer need meds or even insulin.

I know you can, because I’ve seen it happen in my own clinic time and again.

The last thing we need is yet another erection pill with the same risks as the old ones — but that’s just what the FDA is giving us.

It’s called Stendra, but don’t bother remembering the name. You’ll be hearing it in commercials soon enough now that the feds have signed off on it.

Like Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra, the new med is a PDE5 inhibitor. The only real difference is that this new drug promises to work faster than the old ones — supposedly getting things going in as little as 15 minutes, compared to an hour or more for the drugs already on the market.

That might sound great — but the side effects of PDE5 inhibitors are decidedly UN-sexy.

They can cause headaches, forcing you to say “not now” just when you’re ready. They can also give you back pain, which will really limit your bedroom activities, and even cause cold-like symptoms.

Not exactly Harlequin romance material.

These drugs have even caused men to go blind and deaf, which would really make it a challenge to use that drug-induced erection. And by the way, the famous “four-hour erections” mentioned in the commercials for these meds is a dangerous condition where blood can’t leave the penis.

It’s called priapism — and it requires an immediate trip to the emergency room, where the fastest way to relieve that pressure is to drain the blood with a needle, apply an ice pack, or inject a medication.

Ouch!

But forget all the side effects (if you can — I’m not sure it’s possible to forget that last one). There’s another reason to skip the meds when it comes to sexual health, and that’s because the problems themselves are almost always a sign of another problem in the body.

For example, the most common cause of erectile dysfunction is atherosclerosis. That’s when your arteries get stiff from too much plaque — and when your arteries get stiff, you can’t get stiff in other places.

Since atherosclerosis is also the leading cause of heart attacks, stroke, and more, it’s something that needs to be fixed urgently. But if your only warning is erectile dysfunction and you can “fix” it with a sex med, you can ignore it… until the day your wife has to call the ambulance.

In other cases, erection problems are caused by diabetes, poor nutrition, hormonal imbalances (especially low testosterone levels), stress, and even many prescription medications.

A holistic doctor can help find the real cause of erection problems and correct it without the drugs or the risks.