Busting myths about your allergies
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — If you have asthma, this time of year can be especially difficult, as mucus and swelling of the airway can also occur.
The congestion for some is much more extreme than for others.
Foods to embrace or avoid with seasonal allergies
Leola Moore, Bakersfield resident said, “When your head gets so stopped up, the headache is so intense– it’s almost migraine like.”
The culprit? Pollen.
“What’s happening is your body’s breathing in the pollen and the immune system sees it as dangerous or foreign and starts occurring, creating this overreaction. And that might be to swell the nasal tissue closed so that you’re not breathing any more in order to create the mucus, to rinse the pollen away or to cause you to sneeze so that you can force the pollen out,” Dr. Paula D. Ardron, Allergist at Kaiser Permanente said.
Not everyone’s immune system sees pollen as foreign to the body or dangerous.
For those that do, they look for quick relief. A popular option online has been a “sinus rinse” or otherwise known as the “Neti Pot”
“So sinus rinses can be really helpful. The the way that they help is it’s using saltwater, usually blended with a type of baking soda…it can help rinse out all of that pollen and the debris and the mold spores that you’ve breathed in,” Dr. Ardron said.
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Another popular online option is honey. Honey has a small amount of pollen and the thought behind it is to build tolerance to pollen.
Dr. Ardron says that the amount of pollen may be too small for this to be an effective strategy.
Your best bet? Over the counter antihistamines. You might recognize these as Claritin or Zyrtec.
If there are persistent symptoms year round, meet with your allergist as alternatives might be necessary.
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