Is Fall Bringing Worse Allergies?

[hypatia]

Last Thursday I was sitting in the back yard, and with in a 20 minute span, I was so congested, with really itchy eyes. I do have seasonal allergies, but never had them hit so fast, or so hard. We did have a odd summer, weather wise. Perhaps the ragweed plant decided to make extra pollen?

Anyone one else having problems?

 

[Evo]

Last Thursday I was sitting in the back yard, and with in a 20 minute span, I was so congested, with really itchy eyes. I do have seasonal allergies, but never had them hit so fast, or so hard. We did have a odd summer, weather wise. Perhaps the ragweed plant decided to make extra pollen?

Anyone one else having problems?

I've been having unusually bad allergies all summer and I'm sitting here sneezing my head off right now. I was just grabbing for more allergy medicine when I saw your post.

 

[turbo]

I have been suffering with respiratory problems this summer, but I lay it to the excessive heat and humidity. When you get a week or more of 90+ deg heat and 65-75 dew points, it feels like breathing swamp-water.

I have been tested for MANY sensitivities to try to rein in my over-active immune system, but haven't had many positives for ragweed and other seasonal pollens. This has been a brutal summer, weather-wise. In my 58 years, I have never seen a summer in Maine like this one. It rivals the weather during some of the late-summer projects that I had as a consultant in AL and GA.

 

[Astronuc]

Last Thursday I was sitting in the back yard, and with in a 20 minute span, I was so congested, with really itchy eyes. I do have seasonal allergies, but never had them hit so fast, or so hard. We did have a odd summer, weather wise. Perhaps the ragweed plant decided to make extra pollen?

Anyone one else having problems?

When I was in elementary school my lungs would fill up with junk and I'd get asthma that sometimes put me in the hospital on oxygen.

I was put in a research program, partly because some experts thought I might have CF. But it turned out to be allergies, and rather than just nasal or sinus inflammation and congestion, my lungs got congested as well.

I spent about a year and a half doing inhalation therapy where I'd have to inhale a vapor and lie on an incline while some pounded on my back in order to get the phelgm/mucus out of my lungs. Coughing up thick brown stuff wasn't much fun.

Ultimately I was put on allergy shots - weekly for several months, then monthly, then quarterly. After 4 years I was off the allergy shots, except perhaps once or twice in 9th grade. But by 10th grade, my lungs were clear and I could go out for sports. I ultimately spent a lot of time running, cycling and playing soccer, and I haven't had allergy problems since - well except for certain sulfur compounds or hydrocarbons. When I drive on I-10 from about Beaumont, Tx through Baton Rouge, LA, I develop a rash from the sulfur or petrochemicals in the air. The only other place that has happened was in northern Germany where they burn high sulfur coal in the Ruhr Valley area.

 

[lisab]

My allergies are pretty normal this year. In my area, we've had a cool wet spring and a cool summer.

Thank goodness for fexofenadine!

 

[Monique]

I don't know about the US, but I do know that the ragweed Ambrosia is becoming established in Europe. It is indigenous to the United States, but due to the warming climate it can now grow here as well. Apparently it is very allergenic and it produces pollen until October, so they are expecting more people will have allergy symptoms and for a longer time.

 

[DaveC426913]

I have had several unusual bouts of allergies in the last week.

I've always had allergies (including ragweed) but they have tapered off so drastically in the last few years that these recent bouts in the last week have been notable by contrast.

(I am in the S.Ontario area.)

 

[skultch]

These last couple weeks have been awful. I thought I had two different head colds or some kind of sinus problem. I live and work above 9500 ft in the middle of Colorado. If it's allergies, and I think it probably is, it must be local or coming from the west, for me. Last summer, the forest fires in Cali were wreaking havoc. Growing up in NE Ohio, morning ragweed was the worst.

I too did the allergy shots as a kid. 2/week, then 1, then every other week, then monthly. The got progressively stronger. At one point I was getting sick all day because of the shot. I decided to discontinue them. A few years later, my little brother got tested with just as many allergies as I. The same exact clinic told us that they no longer performed allergy shots. I wonder why.

 

[nismaratwork]

In the USA at least, weed pollen has been quite high for several weeks. That would seem to explain the issue? Remember that the center of the country is currently covered by a VERY large rotating high pressure system, which is no-doubt acting in concert with high heat and dry conditions.

 

[hypatia]

Yes, it has been very dry. I did notice after the last rain{10 days ago}, I felt better for a few days. Perhaps it washed the pollen out of the air. Chance of rain tomorrow, I must find some way to appease these rain gods..lol

 

[rhody]

I have an interest in this as well, I am digging into why histamine is created, and is released in the first place. I said recently in another thread there appears to be at least 5 types of receptor sites in in the brain that either promote (neuro-transmitter) or inhibit (neuro-inhibitor) the release of histamine in the body. I find it interesting that the neuroscientific community keeps finding more and more receptor sites.

Obviously, with so many receptor sites in the brain, they are important to our health. I have a whole bunch of links I am trying to organize and construct a time-line history if you will of this stuff. As most of you familiar faces here know by now, simply treating the fact that you get an allergic reaction when you body is assaulted by chemicals, pollen, or other irritants, is not enough for me. I get motivated to try to isolate (at least for myself) the "root cause or causes" as to what can be done to keep it from limiting my normal routine (as Astronuc describes in https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=2866808&postcount=4" above)

I spent about a year and a half doing inhalation therapy where I'd have to inhale a vapor and lie on an incline while some pounded on my back in order to get the phelgm/mucus out of my lungs. Coughing up thick brown stuff wasn't much fun.

Ultimately I was put on allergy shots - weekly for several months, then monthly, then quarterly. After 4 years I was off the allergy shots, except perhaps once or twice in 9th grade. But by 10th grade, my lungs were clear and I could go out for sports.

I don't like to accept the status quo without first putting up a good fight, to find a treatment that hopefully is safe. One that does not have side effects worse than what the allergies are causing. That is just me. I realize this approach is not for everyone.

A perfect example would be my wife's blood pressure meds a few years ago, every winter for two years she would get a tickle that made her cough constantly. She wasn't sleeping through the night. I asked her about it a few times, but she shrugged it off (I didn't know her Dr had switched her medication). Finally, after finding she had switched meds, I spoke to a nurse friend, told her what she was taking and at the same time looked up the side effects on respectable medical sites on the net. Low and behold her advice and what I found matched, chronic cough, and drip could result, if left untreated for years, the bronchial tubes actually thicken, and become more sensitive, which I believe happened in her case, a vicious cycle if you will. She switched meds and in a short time the cough and drip almost went away, a good thing.

This is to illustrate how tolerant some are to being made uncomfortable, while others take a more proactive approach.

Rhody...

 

[Ouabache]

Hypatia, I am sorry you are not feeling well.

My seasonal allergies have always been quite manageable and at most, last a couple weeks usually in mid-spring. Over the last 15 years, I cannot recall having any summer allergies. However this summer starting on Aug 6th, I had very strong symptoms lasting a good 4 weeks, through most of August. As skulch described, it felt like something like a head cold (post nasal dripping, constant feeling to clear throat, nausea, cough, nasal congestion, chest congestion). Symptoms abated somewhat after 2 weeks and then began all over again. The coughing was the worst causing loss of sleep. I live in the countryside where there is an abundance of wild flora. With the hot & muggy dog days of summer, running a window fan to cool down at night made me feel worse. Along with the cooler evening air, I am guessing airborne allergens were blowing in . My voice sounded strained and I couldn't complete a sentence without coughing. By early September all these symptoms cleared.

For me it was a bad summer allergy season. So far, autumn has been kinder.

 

[S_Happens]

I can only speak for the Houston area, but ragweed has certainly picked up early this year. In the last days of July I started noticing my sinuses acting up. I checked the local info and ragweed pollen was already showing 6 grains/m^3 (not much, but enough that I notice it). It rained for a week or so after that and knocked everything down, but starting in mid august it was already enough to have me diving for medication.

It's barely dipping down into the mid 70s at night. I just hope this means it will end early instead of being longer and stronger.

 

[DaveC426913]

It's barely dipping down into the mid 70s at night.

Oh bite me.

 

[nismaratwork]

Oh bite me.

Seriously! It was in the 40's last night where I am... and today my eyes are watering from the weed pollen. ARRGH!

 

[Jack21222]

I heard the best joke at the beginning of this allergy season.

"Pollen is so bad this season that drug dealers are turning their meth back into Sudafed!"

 

[DaveC426913]

I heard the best joke at the beginning of this allergy season.

"Pollen is so bad this season that drug dealers are turning their meth back into Sudafed!"

 

[S_Happens]

Oh bite me.

That means that highs are still in the mid 90s plus during the day with heat index values up over 100 here on the coast. I certainly would prefer it to be a little cooler.

Maybe by late November I'll have to break out a light jacket.

 

[nismaratwork]

That means that highs are still in the mid 90s plus during the day with heat index values up over 100 here on the coast. I certainly would prefer it to be a little cooler.

Maybe by late November I'll have to break out a light jacket.

*snarl*