It’s the season for sneezing, blowing your nose and using lots of tissues.
Allergy doctors and sufferers alike are saying this is the worst season for nasal allergies in years, with tree pollen especially blowing heavily in the breeze.
“It just seems worse than it’s ever been before,” said Barbara Shaw of Branford. “It’s the tree pollen, apparently, is what’s doing it, and my husband and I are both going through tissues like mad. We have an over-the-counter allowance from our health insurance and I’m using it all up just getting tissues by the boxload.”
According to doctors specializing in allergies, asthma and pulmonology, the mild winter likely is contributing to the multitude of tiny spores being blown about. Climate change is undoubtedly a factor, they say, accelerating an increase in allergies over the last 15 years.
Allergy seasons are longer
Shaw said springtime has always been tough, being allergic to pollen, dust and dander, but not like this year.
“I used to think I was getting a cold every spring but it was just a mild reaction to pollen,” she said. “This year, it’s just continuous, just blowing and sneezing. Both of us. It’s just worse than ever.”
“I think everybody kind of presumed it was going to be bad this spring because of how little snow and cold weather we had over the wintertime, said Dr. Kelsey Kaman, a pediatrician specializing in allergies and immunology at the Yale School of Medicine.
According to a 2021 article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “In general across the United States, allergy seasons are longer overall and more robust than they’ve ever been before, and they think that probably has something to do with overall climate change,” Kaman said. “So it’s not just it’s not just in our heads. It’s really happening.”
Dr. Todd Falcone, associate professor of otolaryngology at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, agreed.
“I think this year is a particularly worse year for allergies, mainly because of how long the plant- and tree-growing season has been, with a milder winter and a warmer spring, which has come earlier than usual,” he said.
“The trees and the plants have been growing and blooming longer and the season started earlier,” he said.
Another cause of allergies is grass, Falcone said.
“With warmer weather earlier, our lawns are needing to be cut more often already, which is atypical, so grasses are growing quicker than usual and so it’s a double hit for people who have both tree pollen and grass allergies,” he said.
According to pollen.com, Connecticut is at the medium-high allergy level, with Hartford going to high on a recent day. Birch, maple and juniper trees are the main culprits, according to the website.
Eastern Massachusetts and southern Maine are even worse, with those areas in the high category.
For some, like Shaw’s husband, Frank Shaw, it’s worse in the morning. “I ended up with some pretty serious nose congestion and that kind of stuff for probably the first hour to hour and a half that I’m awake, and then it seems to calm down after that,” he said.
That may be because, according to Kaman, “the worst pollen count is usually first thing in the morning.” The other time when pollen is lowest is after a rain, she said.
Dr. Geoffrey Chupp, a pulmonologist and director of the Yale Center for Asthma and Airway Disease, has seen the evidence of pollen season. “Yesterday my black car turned yellow, a telltale sign that there was a big pollen release, really within the last few weeks,” he said.
“With the heat, a big variation in temperatures, the swings, the combination of those things, part of which may be due to climate change, is really having a large effect on people’s symptoms,” Chupp said. He said more than 70% of asthma is caused by allergies.
Because people wearing masks during the pandemic brought down allergy rates, “I’m not sure we’ve noticed that it’s any worse than usual,” Chupp said.
But he added, “We’re now seeing things getting back to normal. And I have certainly seen patients say their symptoms are worse this year than they’ve been in the past.”
The increase in pollen also exacerbates asthma, which is an inflammation in the lungs, Chupp said.
“One of the things that activates that inflammation, if that patient is allergic to grasses or tree pollens, those pollens are going to be inhaled,” he said. “Those spores are everywhere, and that’s going to activate the patient’s allergies in their airways and cause inflammation of the airways.”
Fighting back
Chupp suggested people with allergies stay indoors with the windows closed. People without air conditioning have it worse, he said. “I think that there’s no question that if your environment is already challenged, and then you have all the pollen on top of it, because of the type of housing you’re in, then it can be particularly difficult. Chupp said older people can have worse allergies even though their immune system is weaker.
Symptoms are triggered when “the immune system reacts to an allergen and inhaled allergens that it considers foreign and mounts an immune response against it,” Falcone said.
“And one of the ways it does that, it releases chemicals in the body called histamine and then the histamine itself is responsible for many of the symptoms we have, like the itching and the sneezing and watery nose and eyes,” he said. “Which is why medicines called antihistamines are typically used to help with these symptoms.”
Other than staying indoors with the windows closed, there are things allergy sufferers can do, Kaman said.
“A lot of people like to shower in the morning but, certainly during high pollen season, it’s really important to shower at nighttime to get all that pollen off of you,” she said. “It’s very, very sticky. It sticks to your hair, sticks to your skin, so getting a shower can be very helpful. So that way your body has a chance to recuperate during the night.”
Kaman frowns on oral antihistamines like Benadryl.
“There’s a lot of research coming out showing that that’s probably not a good idea,” she said. “I always tell patients it’s OK to use in an emergency situation, but it’s probably much better to make sure that you’re using medications that are first line.”
Nasal sprays, including steroids as a preventative and nasal antihistamines for symptoms “are actually superior than any of the oral medicines that we have when it comes to allergy management,” Kaman said.
She said it’s good to be prepared with steroids, depending on what you’re allergic to.
“If you’re a tree pollen person, before the springtime kicks in you want to have that on board,” she said. “If you’re grass, you’re really thinking about May or June starting it, and if you have a lot of the weeds you want to start it in August. And it’s important to get that on board beforehand, so that way you can keep things under control.”
One approach is controversial, even if it is harmless: eating local honey.
“The theory behind that is supposed to be that the bees themselves are picking up some of that pollen we would typically be exposed to, and maybe by digesting it yourself, you’re then able to develop some tolerance for the allergies,” Kaman said.
She said that while some studies support the idea, “overall, when we look at the more robust literature, it’s not convincing.”
Falcone said nasal saline is a good way to remove allergens from the nostrils. “All the allergens we’re talking about are inhaled allergens, so they’re all things we’re breathing in our nose and mouth,” he said. “So the first line of defense is to flush the nose with some over-the-counter nasal saline and then I usually recommend a topical nasal steroid or nasal steroid spray.”
For those with really severe allergies, Falcone recommended allergy shots. “You’ve got to come into the office and get tested and consider allergy shots, which over time, typically years, allows the body to become immune to some of these allergens,” he said.
The shots consist of a small amount of the substance the person is allergic to. It is “injected under the skin weekly for a while and then you slowly, over time, increase the dose so that the body gets used to it and does not consider it foreign anymore, and doesn’t mount the allergic response,” Falcone said. “That takes some time.”
Chupp said there are several clinical studies in asthma opening up in the next few weeks. For more information, call 203-737-5572.
Ed Stannard can be reached at estannard@courant.com.
