Spring is coming and with it comes sunshine, good weather, more energy, more cheer, longer days, the desire to be outside in the fresh air with friends, flowers that grow back in their thousands of colors and trees that fill with leaves again; but it also brings with it the pesky spring allergy that many people suffer from.
If your eyes are already feeling irritated, your nose is itchy and you have nasal congestion, it is probably the spring allergy produced by our beloved pollen. Here’s what it’s all about and some tips on how to treat it. remedies so that allergies don’t stop you from enjoying the springtime.
Why do we have allergies in spring?
Spring is the season of the year that comes after winter, when the weather starts to improve, we see more sunshine and plants start to bloom again. With this blooming of plants, pollen is everywhere in the air and may cause many of us to sneeze and get the famous spring allergy.
Spring allergy is caused by pollen, which is the allergen that affects us through the respiratory tract.. It is so tiny that we cannot perceive it when it is in the air, unless we look at the corners of the streets where it sometimes accumulates, in that kind of yellow dust that we see. It is a particle produced by male plants to fertilize female plants and a single plant can produce thousands of pollen grains.
As a curious fact we tell you that it is not the pollen of all plants that generates allergy, in fact the bigger the plants and flowers are, the less allergy they cause us, because these plants are pollinated by insects and not through the air.
It is rather the pollen of smaller plants and grasses that we see growing on the sides of that we see growing on the sides of roads and meadows that can cause us allergy; and although they look like rural plants, they affect more in urban areas because they are mixed with air pollution.
Identify spring allergy symptoms
The symptoms of spring allergy are quite similar to those of the common cold, however there are certain characteristics that can help you more easily identify whether it is a spring allergy or a cold.
The basic symptoms of spring allergy are nasal congestion, sneezing, itchy throat, nose and roof of mouthIt sounds like the same description as a cold, but look for the following: a cold, shortness of breath, cough, eye irritation and even conjunctivitis. It sounds like the same description as a cold, but note the following:
When we have spring allergy, our nasal mucus is transparent, light, liquid and comes out of the nose continuously; on the other hand, in the case of a cold, nasal mucus is denser, green or yellow and very rarely generates itching, as this is something very typical of allergies.
Now then, the discomfort in the eyes that makes them itchy, watery, irritated and a little reddened is very and a little reddened is typical of allergic processes rather than colds. On the other hand, if you have been running a fever then it is probably a sporadic cold, as fever is not a symptom of spring allergy.
What can I do to avoid spring pollen allergy?
There are certain measures that we can take in our day to day if we already know that we are prone to suffer from pollen allergy and we can try that this spring does not catch us, or at least that its effects are more bearable.
We will not tell you to keep your doors and windows closed when these days are so spectacular, but you should do it during the night and at dawn, because it is at these times when the level of pollen allergy is higher. at these times when the level of pollen in the air is higher than at any other time of the year.. If you make a trip to a place by car, try to travel with the windows closed so that you do not breathe the pollen.
Other things you can do are to wear sunglasses so that your eyes are not affected by pollen and the sun, do not air dry your clothes outside so that pollen particles do not reach them from the air, and change your clothes and take a shower as soon as you return home from the street.
Treatments for spring allergy
There is a treatment to get rid of pollen allergy once and for all; immunotherapy or allergy vaccination is a treatment that you do accompanied by your doctor in which you are administered different doses of the substance that generates your allergy until your body becomes tolerant to it.
Another thing you can do is treat the symptoms and relieve them by taking antihistamines.. These are medications that block the action of the chemical in your body that when in contact with the allergy triggers your symptoms.
Now that you know all about spring allergies, enjoy the sun and spring and avoid those annoying symptoms that pollen can cause.