Allergy Season

pollen

Dr. Gailen Marshall, an allergist and immunologist, talked to MPB's Karen Brown about seasonal allergies and how to stifle your symptoms.

Karen: Are we all allergic to pollen or are there other things outside during this time of year that are causing a reaction?

Dr. Marshall: There are people who have low level allergies to animals that live in their home or dust that’s in their home or even mold spores … and by the way we all have mold in our home. It’s not “Do we have it” but “How much do we have?” Then suddenly the pollen season comes on. We’re in the middle of tree season right now. The biggest problems here are things like oak and elm, pecan trees and hickory trees. That’s what’s really big. When those pollens are raining in the air and we’re breathing them in on top of already being a little sensitive, it can cause us to be a little more ill than ordinarily we would be if we weren’t in pollen season, or better still, if we weren’t allergic to all that other stuff.

Karen: An individual might not be allergic to oak but they might be allergic to Hickory? I notice this ebbs and flows in terms of reaction. Is that as trees are blooming?

Dr. Marshall: As it warms up there will be that nice, earthy smell that we smell during an afternoon rain shower and those are mold spores. Those mold spores, to which you can be sensitive, will, indeed, make that worse. And that washing effect you described, by the way, does work but it only works for a little while. Unless there’s rain for days on end … and that can wash it out, but in less than 12 hours it can come right back and be at almost the same level it was before the rain storm.

Karen: If someone wants to deal with the symptoms of seasonal allergies without taking medicine, what do you recommend?

Dr. Marshall: First of all is to recognize when the pollen is at its highest. It’s usually at its highest very early in the morning, at least for trees. People who like to get out and walk or run or take their dogs out early in the morning and they have seasonal allergies, they can do something as simple as moving that to a different time of day and that can help a lot. The second part is to recognize that these pollens, while they’re very small, they’re still big enough that they can really be filtered quite nicely. They make these pollen filter masks that you can buy in the hardware store or the drug store … very inexpensive … and by keeping it over their face while they’re walking or running … it’s a little bit harder when you run but it’s not impossible, that can cut down on the exposure. The issue here is that they want to limit their exposure. I have some very sensitive patients who will actually take their clothes off in the mudroom, or the garage of their home so they can wash them right there and then go inside so they can take a shower. What they know is that their medicine is going to wear off and if they don’t get that tree pollen off of them, they’re going to bring it inside and that’s going to prolong their symptoms.

Karen: At what point should a person consider going to a doctor if they think their seasonal allergies are getting the best of them?

Marshall: If a person can limit his or her exposure, if a person can take an over-the-counter non-sedating antihistamine – there are two available right now – generic name Loratadine and generic name Cetirizine. Both of those can be taken over-the-counter. They’re both relatively inexpensive, If you take them before you generate symptoms they work much better than trying to treat the symptoms. If that takes care of the problem for the individual and they know, if they don’t forget, that it will be OK, then that person doesn’t need to come see me because I’m basically going to tell them to do what I just said. But if they’re having trouble in that they get a secondary sinus infection regularly when their nose stops up; if they have lower airway trouble where they develop a cough or have difficulty breathing or wheezing, those individuals really need to be seen sooner rather than later.