E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSBy Joan Raymond
It's not just here in the US, Britain started off with a milder than average winter, when cherry blossoms were blooming at Christmas.
Spring is still around the corner, but the problem for many of the 40 million Americans who suffer seasonal allergies is that Mother Nature, which bestowed an unusually mild winter on most of the U.S., is giving them a big punch in their already drippy little noses. Allergy season seems to be starting earlier this year -- and it’s going to be lasting longer.
“What we’re hearing, at least anecdotally, is patients saying their allergies are more severe, symptoms begin a few weeks earlier than usual, and bother them for longer periods of time,” says allergist Dr. Thanai Pongdee, who practices at
the Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Fla., and sees patients not only from the southern region of the U.S., but also from the East Coast and parts of the Midwest. “It doesn’t seem to matter where they’re from.”
Some studies have already shown that milder temperatures are indeed creating a little bit of allergy hell for sufferers.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science last year showed a link between a longer ragweed season and warming temperatures. According to the researchers, in some areas, ragweed season is 13 to 27 days longer than in was in 1995, attributed mostly to a later onset of a first frost. In another study presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, researchers found that from 1981 to 2007 there was an increase in the duration of some pollen seasons due to an increase of average temperatures.
Allergy sufferers in Georgia are already rubbing their itchy eyes. “We’re getting patients in already who are having allergic type symptoms, and we think it’s a cold, but as high as the pollen levels have been on some days, it may well be from the pollen,” says allergist Dr. Andy Nish, of Gainesville, Ga. Since they’ve had such a mild winter – just like most of us – Nish expects a longer growing season, giving rise to larger amounts of pollen in the air, for a lengthier time.
That’s a problem, since those lucky folks who don’t usually experience allergy symptoms may be at increased risk due to these longer exposure times and heavier pollen loads, says the Mayo Clinic’s Pongdee.
Even in Cleveland, Ohio, known for its notoriously cold, long winters, this season’s mild temperatures have doctors gearing up for an earlier arrival of itchy-eyed patients. “I’m expecting allergies to be worse due to the unusual weather,” says allergist Dr. Samuel Friedlander, of University Hospitals Case Medical Center. “I had a patient report seeing a bee flying around this month, so perhaps even bee allergies may occur early.”
There’s no need to panic and buy a biohazard suit.
Doctors say the majority of patients can be helped with either over-the-counter or prescription medication, and some common-sense preventive measures like keeping windows closed when pollen counts are high. You can always check pollen counts at aaaai.org.
Related stories:
Leave a Comment:
All I can say here is ACHOO!!!! They are right, we are already miserable, and it is 16 wind chill and I have full blown allergies on top of freezing. ACHOO!!!!!
Me too, this is crazy!
It's not allergies ---- There is a deadly epidemic of "Severely Conservative" going around.
Severely Conservative Disease attacks brain cells & the central nervous system,, Wash your hands real good after using the bathroom & shaking hands
Wash you hands after the gays are done in the bathroom having sick sex and then voting for obama.
I live in Texas where it is allergy season YEAR ROUND! My middle son always has them, the other two are periodical, like me. Don't say allergy season is here because for me and my family it NEVER ended!!!!!
I concur. Used to live in Austin and there wasn't a month when something wasn't blowing around. I had 3 1/2 years of allergy shots. Now live in Raleigh, NC and although it isn't as bad as Austin I'm still reacting to many of the same allergens (cedar mainly) with a few new ones thrown in.
It seems like it is always cedar fever time it seems in Central Texas -- every time I turn around my allergies are driving me crazy!
If you don't have allergies when you come to Central Texas you will have....
Don't bogart the benadryl!
Allergies will continue being bad thanks to GMO's in up to 91% of your food - and you probably don't even know it OR what they are. Educate yourself on what GMO's are and contact each and every company and ask them not to use them - only in America! All the other countries allow very little GMO crops and require labeling them.
There is no cause and effect relationship. If I had a reaction every time I ate a corn-based or soy-based food, then you may have a point. My seasonal pollen allergies (they have identified the antigen, and it's from pine, not from maize) have nothing to do with the food that we all consume on a regular basis. Otherwise, most of the entire planet would have allergies at all times because the US is the largest producer and exporter of GM crops. Reason being, GM allows us to produce substantially equivalent food end products in higher yields on marginal lands, which allows us to feed starving nations that don't have the land or infrastructure to farm. With global population nearing 7 billion, GM is a good thing...you could argue that the companies and patents are not, but the food itself very much is. You are correct though people should be informed, educated, and products should be labeled. But the key word there is "educated," not spreading misinformation, but truly grasping the genetics behind what is going (which will never happen because general Math and Science education is abysmally poor in America).
"GMO's in up to 91% of your food - and you probably don't even know it OR what they are."
i'm going to refrain from an immunology rant brought on by this and just suggest reading a genetics or molecular bio text when you get a chance. if all the hype was as severe as the anti-gmo "we don't want genes in our food!!!" folks play it to be, you'd think we'd actually see some tangible evidence in human populations pointing to something bad. the population is booming, food stores are crashing, and to sustain the population without a huge chunk dying off we're going to need fast growing ultra sustainable sources of nutrition in the years to come.
i for one would rather eat a GMO vegetable instead of the proposed recycled poo protein announced last year that's in the works.
totally agree. but then again we all know how hard it is to break away from angry birds for two minutes to google something at the least.
Nice, ill-timed article (considerig the content). Ragweeds are not even germinating across the US right now. The allergies from ragweed (usually incorrectly blamed on goldenrods) come from their flowers -- which don't occur until these annual weeds blooms -- in summer to early fall!
Perhaps this article would be more apropos and relevant if there was a discussion of molds with the mild winter in the US this year...perhaps mentioning of a possible early flowering of pines and oaks (wind-pollinated trees) in the southernmost latitudes, such as peninsualr Florida, the tip of South Texas and Southern California...
Why are these plants trying to pollinate me? I feel like I'm being raped by the trees and flowers and grasses. Bring back the ice age and be done with this crap.
Yus, have you ever heard the ancient Chinese curse which warns us to, 'Be careful what you ask for. You might get it'?
My family and I live in Oklahoma and it has hit us hard. We feel your pain America...
I live in southern Maine, and have allergies to the fall-blooming asters. The dead plants are still up in my neighbor's yard, as we haven't had enough snow to knock them down or cover them, thus their remains are still blowing in the wind!It has been nice not having to do the usual snow removal, but I never realized what an Allie snow is in the war against pollen!
At least it is nice to know that Europe, Russia, Korea, India and even north Africa will have their allergies delayed due to the record cold they are having.
:(
I like your bunny Lora, wanna snuggle? We can make more
Every year, it's the same ole headline! No change!
It's not allergies ---- There is a deadly epidemic of "Severely Conservative" going around.
Severely Conservative Disease attacks brain cells & the central nervous system,, Wash your hands real good after using the bathroom & shaking hands
No, this is not the fault of George W. Bush you idiots! Al Gore invented allergies; the day before he invented the Internet.
The day after he invented global warming and the day he wanted a massage plus a hand job. Hows Tipper doing Al? Bahahahahahahahaha