Tips for Surviving Allergy Season
If you suffer from seasonal allergies, here are some tips for surviving allergy season.
With spring in full swing, I can’t go one day without protecting myself from prolonged exposure to the outdoors. Wondering why? I’m allergic to most of what is blooming in nature. This is my fifth spring living with daily headaches, congestion, aches and pains attributed to severe seasonal allergies.
Tips for Surviving Allergy Season
Seasonal allergies — or an allergic reaction to the tree and grass pollens that float around in the spring and summer, known as allergic rhinitis — affect nearly 60 million people in the United States every year. I find it comical I did not truly suffer from seasonal allergies until I moved back to New England in 2017. According to longtime allergist Fred Little, a Clinical Associate Professor at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, tree pollen season starts in New England before our local trees are even producing pollen.
Somehow I escaped seasonal allergy symptoms while living in the south for 12 years. If you have never experienced a spring in Georgia, it is a beautiful three weeks of pollen thick air and a yellow coated world. Interestingly enough, visible ‘pine pollen’ is not as allergenic as pollen that comes from deciduous trees (which surround my Connecticut house). If you’re suffering from seasonal allergies like me, here are tips for surviving allergy season.
1. Change Your Clothes
It’s hard to stay inside when the weather is beautiful during the spring/summer. However, pollen will cling to your skin, hair, and clothing (even if you can’t see it). Change your clothes, wash your face and hands, OR shower after spending time outside. Oh and never climb in bed with clothes you wore outside — you will spread the allergens to your sheets.
2. Avoid Bringing Nature Indoors
Leave nature outside where it belongs. My family never wears outdoor shoes around the house because of everything that you can track inside. Keep your shoes in a designated area, like by the back door, on a rubber mat. Love the blooming trees in your backyard enough to put the floral stems in a vase? Make sure you’re not allergic to them first!
3. Protect Your Skin from Allergy Season Elements
Wear gardening gloves (and/or a mask) while working in the yard or mowing the lawn. Unfortunately, I am highly allergic to the majority of the weeds and trees growing in our backyard. I cannot touch certain weeds without instantly developing a skin rash unless I am wearing gloves.
3 More Tips for Surviving Allergy Season
4. Close Your Windows
No matter how much you love the smell of fresh air, refrain from opening the windows in your home and car. An open window is a surefire way to let pollen inside that will stick to surfaces and trigger allergy symptoms indoors. If you truly cannot resist, limit the time the windows are open and make sure it isn’t a windy day. While I would love to avoid turning on the air conditioning until it’s too hot indoors, we cannot ris
5. Stay Hydrated
Stay hydrated, sip herbal teas, and gargle with salt water for a scratchy throat. Here is a natural remedy to relieve an itchy throat from allergies:
- Mix 1/2 teaspoon of salt in 8 ounces of warm water.
- Sip and gargle for 10 seconds.
- Spit it out; don’t swallow it.
- Repeat 2 to 3 times a day.
6. Consult a Medical Professional
Surviving allergy season can be difficult. Make sure you consult a doctor if you think you have seasonal allergies. I never knew how many environmental allergens I am allergic to until I saw an allergy specialist. There are over the counter and prescription medications you can take for seasonal allergies. Don’t let blooming flowers, growing grass, and blossoming trees ruin your day!
Read about my seasonal allergy testing experience here!
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