How to Survive Allergy and Pollen Season

From Denny: For most of the country allergy season is just beginning. Here in Louisiana I'm starting on round two. First it was the trees leafing out along with the weeds blooming and now it's the azaleas, Indian hawthorn and other sweet shrubs. Somehow, it's the first volley of pollen that's the worst as your immune system just isn't ready for the attack of killer plants.

Did you know that 60 million people suffer from allergies? No wonder there is a thriving industry for over the counter allergy medicines. This is the time of year when your body recognizes pollen and weeds as dangerous and so creates an intense reaction by releasing histamines.

Symptoms of Spring allergies:

* sore or scratchy throat

* red, itchy, watery eyes

* runny nose

* post-nasal drip

* cough (sometimes you wonder if you have a hairball like your cat)

* sneezing

* congestion

* itchy ears, buzzing sound

* you feel sluggish, tired and fatigued


Some over the counter medications available:


* Claritin

* Tylenol Allergy

* Sudafed PE

* Benadryl

* Afrin

* Visine

Make sure to check which medications might make you drowsy and take precautions not to drive, use heavy machinery, be found chopping veggies in the kitchen with sharp knives and the like. :)

I usually pass on over the counter meds and prefer to use lots of black tea, honey and lemon. At the height of the drippy business I go for spiking my hot tea, honey, lemon mixture with a healthy dose of cognac or brandy. You can use anything high octane alcohol you like or can tolerate. I find tea tends to work better than coffee for drying up the drips.

Another food to include in your diet are soups made with lentils as they are drying - especially mung beans. If you make a mung bean soup make sure to include carrots to help sweeten the taste as they are a natural pairing with mung beans that dry up excess water. That's why mung beans are so great for weight loss too.

If you can stay away from anything that is hard to digest like heavy meats. Stay away from mucous forming foods like milk, ice cream and cheese during this time. Food support is always important when you get into pollen season.

Ever noticed sometimes you feel itchy and sneeze even when in your house away from the pollen and the house is closed up with the air conditioning running full blast to filter the air? If you spent any time outside gardening, walking or anything else the pollen may have hitch hiked onto your shoes, clothing, hair and body. Take off your shoes, wash your clothes immediately and take a shower.

Other precautions to keep away the killer plants in your life is to buy a special vacuum cleaner for allergies, have hardwood or tiled floors, leather couches, no curtains, mattress and pillow covers and purchasing high numbered air filters for your air conditioning and heating system.

During the height of the pollen season be sure to change your air filter every month - not the three month period recommended by the product packaging. Trust me; you will feel better and the house will be clear of most pollen this way. Sometimes, I just run the house fan when the weather is not hot enough to run the air conditioning and the pollen gets filtered that way too. Consider this too: a lot less dusting! That's a "Yay!" factor in my book. :)

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Funny Allergy Quotes - Cheeky Quote Day 7 Apr 2010

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The Funny Side of Allergy Season - Ahh, Choo!

I love pollen by brookenovak @ flickr


From Denny: Check out these just wonderful science facts about pollen from Science Daily:


* Under human-induced climate change we expect higher wind speeds and more frequent storms will move pollen and seeds even farther from the source.

* The older a tree gets, the more pollen it produces each year.

* Long-distance dispersal of transgenic pine pollen is a potential problem only if that pollen is viable.

* Until then, the highest pine pollen had ever been found in the atmosphere was 1000 feet

* The odd thing is that pollen germination did not decline as distance increased ... You would expect germination to gradually drop off as pollen floats further away, but that's not the case.

* Pine pollen can travel up to 1800 miles in a short amount of time.


OK, everyone, do you get the idea that the plant world just might be mad at humanity and this is their revenge? As it was I ran across a study of growing hay fever plants in a carbon dioxide rich environment that caused the plants to produce 61% more pollen. Supposedly, we cannot blame the sooty air all on car emissions as apparently plants and trees make up 80% of the pollution.

So, this is what humanity can expect, just in time for the 2012 predictions of the end of the world as we know it: Climate change is causing faster winds and more storms to blow pollen our way from the ends of the earth that we have never experienced. Trees on this planet are arriving in old age so they are having a last fling at reproducing themselves with the ladies so they are sending out Viagra moments at an alarming rate. Pine pollen is like a blood hound; it likes to travel ridiculously long distances and arrive on your doorstep.


Quote

* I used to wake up at 4 A.M. and start sneezing, sometimes for five hours. I tried to find out what sort of allergy I had but finally came to the conclusion that it must be an allergy to consciousness. - James Thurber


*** For the full post with many more funny quotes, a funny allergy season customer service tech support joke and lots of entertaining photos - and your very own special link to a pollen count in your area - hike on over to The Social Poets for Cheeky Quote Day:

Funny Allergy Quotes - Cheeky Quote Day 7 Apr 2010


*** THANKS for visiting, feel welcome to drop a comment or opinion, enjoy bookmarking this post on your favorite social site, a big shout out to awesome current subscribers – and if you are new to this blog, please subscribe in a reader or by email updates!