A woman takes in the view of a ‘super bloom’ of wild poppies blanketing the hills of Walker Canyon on March 12, 2019, near Lake Elsinore, California. For some, pollen can trigger allergies, which have been heightened for many in the Bay Area this year. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
It’s not your imagination — your allergies may feel worse this spring. And climate change is partially to blame.
However, taking small steps to reduce your exposure and acting quickly to treat allergies can make a huge difference in your day-to-day life.
KQED Forum spoke with the following experts about why your allergies might feel different this year, the science behind how you’re feeling and what you can do to find some relief:
Dr. Sayantani Sindher, clinical associate professor of Allergy and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine
Dr. Maria Garcia-Lloret, associate professor of pediatrics and fellowship program director in the Division of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology and Rheumatology at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
Sponsored
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Is allergy season really worse this year? And is climate to blame?
Dr. Sayantani Sindher: It definitely feels more severe — stronger, with more people being affected. Every year for the past several years, each year has felt worse than the preceding year.
A bee collects pollen from prickly poppies (Argemone munita) blooming in a landscape that burned in the 2020 El Dorado Fire, on July 12, 2022, in the San Gorgonio Wilderness near Angelus Oaks, California. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
It’s really hard to track that from year to year. However, there have been some publications that look at it from a much larger perspective, looking at pollen levels, looking at the change in temperature, looking at carbon dioxide.
Dr. Maria Garcia-Lloret: There is no doubt that in the last 40 years, there has been a progressive increase in respiratory and food allergies. In some parts of the country, you can grow tomatoes in May, but you can also grow them in December. So the growing season and the pollen season have increased.
In Southern California, last year was a particularly tough year because we had relatively unseasonal and strong rains in the month of January that compounded the problem of allergies with a certain degree of mold and pollen exposure.
Dr. Sindher: In the past several decades, [pollen season] has extended out by about 20 days. So the seasons themselves, the timing of the pollination, is extended, and that is directly tied to the increase in temperature.
We have a physician who has been doing pollen counts since 2002 … We found that over time, he was seeing the same kind of pattern where [the seasons for] tree pollen — as well as some mold and wheat pollen — were extending much more than other allergens.
Not only is [wind] distributing the pollen, the allergies themselves have become more allergenic, so they’re almost stronger than they used to be in the past. If you think of some areas that are in the valley — notably Sacramento and Fresno that are very impacted by allergies, because of their topographical nature — the allergen almost can’t leave. So the winds kind of keep it in there, and they can’t disperse.
Allergies can cause body aches, but are usually more associated during flu season with the flu. And then sometimes, [your cold-like symptoms are actually] the therapeutic effect of allergy medicine. A cold is not going to respond to the standard antihistamine.
It’s also important for people to know that allergies make you more predisposed [to a cold] or make your cold last longer. It’s one of the questions I usually have to ask my allergic patients: “Do you cling to your cold?” Because the allergic inflammation that many times we have year-round makes us more vulnerable to respiratory infections.
So, is this a cold or is this an allergy? Many times it’s going to be both.
What’s the science behind my allergies?
Dr. Sindher: Generally, when we’re allergic to something, it essentially means our body has formed these preformed allergen-specific IgE antibodies.
We’ll use grass as an example: That means your body has already created grass-specific IgE antibodies. And so when you come into exposure to the grass pollen, it attaches to those antibodies which are connected to these allergy cells called mast cells, and these contain your histamine, tryptase, all the preformed and mediators that get created that lead to an inflammatory response.
Tall grass and wildflowers grow in a meadow at Big Basin Redwoods State Park on May 26, 2022. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
It’s not just the immediate response: they also recruit more allergy cells to have a much later-stage or longer-lasting course of symptoms.
Who is most at risk from allergies?
Dr. Garcia-Lloret: Allergy is a disease of the young. You start showing your propensity to develop allergies at a very young age, although the pattern changes.
Early on, your skin allergies are a bit more manifest. You partially outgrow that, and the food allergy comes along.
And then, when you think you’re getting rid of your food allergy, the respiratory allergy catches you.
Dr. Sindher: What I tell my patients is: “Even though we’re focusing on the allergy, it is the whole person.” So if you are sleep deprived, if you have a lot of stress, if you’re not eating well, if there’s a lot going on, all symptoms can be much worse than if you take care of yourself.
You need to take care of your body and you in all other arenas, so that as we are treating your food allergy, the symptoms are better managed. There is something to be said for treating the person as a whole, and not just focusing on allergy by itself, but all the other elements that might be that might be stressing out the immune system.
What allergy medicines actually work?
Dr. Sindher: One is just mitigation and reducing your exposure: sitting indoors when possible, limiting activities that might trigger your symptoms. So, for instance, if you’re very grass allergic, maybe don’t mow the lawn yourself in the midst of grass allergy season.
When you’re indoors, keep your windows closed, if you can, and run air purifiers. If you have air conditioning, just make sure the filter is also changed.
If you are outdoors — which most of my patients are — when you come in, change out your shoes. Change your clothes, take a shower, rinse off as much of that as you can.
And the earlier you can start your allergy medications, the better your symptoms will be. Don’t wait until your symptoms are unbearable before you start your treatment regimen.
Easy over-the-counter ones are antihistamines such as loratadine, Claritin, or Zyrtec, cetirizine, and then Allegra — which is fexofenadine — are excellent choices.
You can also use saline rinses or a Neti pot, and then nasal sprays, which have a very low-dose steroid that can calm down the inflammation and swelling inside your nasal passages.
If that doesn’t do the trick and you are working with an allergist, they can do allergy shots that can be personalized to the individual’s allergic profile and what they’re allergic to.
