Pollen Allergy Symptoms – Spring Fever!

Spring is a wonderful time of year for most of us but spare a thought for the millions of folks who suffer from an allergy to pollen. While we are admiring flowers and tree blossom they are rubbing their eyes and trying out one decongestant – for their blocked nose,  after another!

In spite of being asthmatic and having food allergies I’ve experienced no problems from pollen. It just goes to show how idiosyncratic allergy is and makes it harder to handle in a holistic way.

Symptoms of Pollen Allergy

Pollen is an environmental allergy not unlike mold allergy or reactions from atmospheric pollution

The main symptoms from Pollen allergy are

•    Red itchy eyes
•    Nasal congestion
•    Sneezing
•    Wheezing
•    Rashes

The fact is though that pollen can add to the burden your body is carrying anyway and push you over a threshold where symptoms occur.

Tree Pollen Allergies are the first to show up. Trees begin to pollinate in March and April although this will alter depending both on how far north you live and on the trees in your locality.
I am writing this in early May and the local trees along the river are giving off visible storms of pollen and blossom making me very grateful that I don’t suffer from Hay fever!

How To Handle Pollen Allergy or Hay Fever

The first action point with any allergy is avoidance when you can. With Pollen Allergy the allergen is tiny wind borne specks of pollen which will travel miles from their “home” to drift into your nose or throat.

Second, the allergy burden your body carries is the total of your food allergies, environmental allergies, pet allergies and so on. When pollen happens along it sits on top of the total allergy “package” your body is coping with.

To give you a better idea of this concept of “Total Body Burden”, let me give you an example.

Allergens trigger the body to respond inflammation and histamine in the blood stream. Your blood does not know if the histamine it is carrying comes from a reaction from Pet dander or from your cheese sandwich or from the mold in your bathroom – it’s all histamine and it’s all a problem.

Along comes spring and along comes pollen from local trees. This is breathed in and adds to your background histamine level perhaps pushing you over a threshold where you notice symptoms and prompting you to take action.

Any action you take to reduce your allergy exposure – by using a HEPA filter in your home or from eating a low allergy diet or from excluding pets from your bedroom will help your allergy.

Yes, really! Keeping Fido out of your room can help with your Pollen allergy! It may sound nutty but when you get the idea of Total Body Burden it become clear.

Third comes trerstmnet options. Many sufferers from allergy have little luck with their meds and look elsewhere and the first port of call for many is natural supplements. Prime candidate for attention is vitamin C because experiments show it acts to reduce histamine in the blood stream. There are many other health benefits in taking a healthy dose of vitamin C and I’d recommend checking them out.

Summary - you can’t cut all the trees down and stop flowers from pollinating but you can take lost of action steps in your home with use of a HEPA vacuum cleaner or air filter, pet control and dietary clean up.

Last, you can give vitamin C and similar safe natural remedies a go. Lots of advice is available from Nutritional Professionals to help you with your own unique needs. Pollen allergy can be treated and you don’t just have to suffer pollen allergy symptoms with so many options available!