Pollen is high

By Charles Sowell  

APRIL 12, 2010 10:14 a.m. (0)

Pollen counts have hit a 12-year high in the Greenville area sparking a yellow storm that has driven allergy sufferers to distraction and promises weeks of prolonged suffering unless weather patterns change.

Neil Kao, an allergist who practices in Greenville is in change of the area’s pollen counting station, said tree pollens: oak, birch, mulberry, pine, maple, poplar, sycamore, sweet gum, willow and ash have been high for some time now.

“Conditions have just been perfect for massive amounts of pollen to be dumped into the air,” he said. “It takes a wet period leading up to the tree blooming season, then dry conditions during the bloom to hit levels like we’ve had.”

A late frost, while bad for fruit growers, is a boon to allergy sufferers as it damps down tree reproductive rates.

Pollen counts over wide swaths of the Southeast have been very high, he said.

The Weather Channel keeps up with regional pollen levels and is reporting that levels all over the region (including much of the Upstate) have soared into the very high levels several times in the past week.

“In a normal year we get periodic showers that wipe the atmosphere clean of the pollens,” Kao said. “We haven’t had that this year. Add to it the fact that we went from cool to relatively hot in a very short period of time and you get a tree bloom that is just stupendous.”

What happen on the pollen scene will likely change as a storm from passes through, Kao said. How much it will change will depend on the amount of rainfall.

“The tree pollination season lasts for several weeks,” he said. “But once the peak with trees passes, then grasses start to pollinate and they reach their peak about the time trees start to close out.”

Realistically, allergy sufferers are looking at misery well into summer, depending on conditions.

Allergy sufferers often turn to their doctors during pollen seasons like this, Kao said and most practitioners tend to simply medicate.

Kao takes a more holistic approach recommending that short-term relief can come through limiting exposure to pollens and using the medications that have been prescribed together.

In addition, Kao said, sufferers should minimize their time outside, use an N95 facemask to cut down on inhaled pollens. He also recommends rinsing the nose, eyes and mouth with clean water regularly; changing clothes after being outside for any long time and showering before bed.

There are also quite a few myths associated with minimizing the effects of high pollen counts, Kao said.

Chief among them is that locally produced honey will reduce symptoms. It may taste great, but will do nothing to relieve itchy eyes.

Also Kao said it is a myth that “extra vitamins and herbal products can boost (the) immune system.”  The only herbally derived medication has ever been shown the help is Nasalcrom which was sold as a prescription until the patent expired.
And the last myth Kao regularly encounters is that oral immunotherapy (pills to treat allergies) is an approved treatment in the U.S.

Most pills commonly prescribed treat symptoms not the immune system issues.

The immunotherapy products are in phase three clinical trials, but none are close to being approved yet, Kao said.

Comments

Add New

Leave a Comment
Comments are moderated and may not be posted immediately.
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."