The season of blooms, pastel colored flowers, fresh fragrances, celebrated by Botticelli as rebirth and life, may not be as ideal if you add allergies to the mix.

Time goes by so fast that we can hardly believe spring is around the corner.

The season of blooms, pastel colored flowers, fresh fragrances, celebrated by Botticelli as rebirth and life, may not be as ideal if you add allergies to the mix.

There are 4 families of allergens and the ones called environmental are the equivalent of a big, raucous, noisy huge family.

Pollen, dust, particles visible and invisible, dirt, mold, trees, grasses, dust mites and pet dander,  imagine them all entering in contact with your body and producing undesired results.

What triggers them:

• Pollen can also cause a cross-reaction known as food allergy syndrome : patients reacting to grasses or some trees may also be allergic to related fruits and vegetables.

   [DAILY POLLEN COUNT]

• Wine and alcohol
• Stress affects the auto-immune system
• Wind and rainstorms, humidity

Control the environment:

• Make-up and hair-sprays are meant to ‘stick’ to your body and may collect more pollen. If you don’t want to go to bed with your worst enemy, which are the particles of pollen in your hair and skin, remove make-up and wash your hair before going to bed.
• Keeping house plants moist creates the ideal environment for mold spores to grow in.
• Down covers and pillows: collect a great amount of dust
• Ceiling fans: turn them off, they move the dust around
• Pets: out of the bedroom
• Upholstered furniture: must be brushed and washed regularly
• Deep cleaning: have someone else do it. In order to not get exposed to dust, dirt and eventually cleaning product fumes and sprays

How to recognize the symptoms:

• Sneezing
• Itchy eyes
• Hey fever, otherwise known as allergic rhinitis
• Rubbing of the eyes
• Dark circles under eye
• Congestion
• Watery eyes

Some myths and facts:

FACT: Allergy shots (immunotherapy) are still the number one solution and long term response to eliminating hay fever

MYTH: “I am allergic to the air we breathe, I can’t jog, run or practice any open air sport”. If you get tested, diagnosed and treated by an allergist, chances are those symptoms will vanish.

MYTH or FACT: The ‘hygiene hypothesis’, the theory by which the decrease of infectious diseases is related to an increase of deficiencies to the immune system. The ‘dirt cure’, a similar idea that “children in Westernized countries grow up in a world that can be too sanitized”

We leave this to scientists and experts to determine, but we would like to draw attention to them.

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Sources:

[1] http://news.health.com/2012/03/10/how-to-avoid-spring-sneezing-and-stuffiness/

[2]http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/how-the-dirt-cure-can-make-for-healthier-families/?emc=edit_tnt_20160211&nlid=64721342&tntemail0=y&_r=0

[3]  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2841828/

[4] http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20795406_12,00.html

[5] http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hay-fever/in-depth/seasonal-allergies/art-20048343