SPRING TIME

WHEN YOUR NOSE DOES MORE RUNNING THAN YOU DO

An estimated 4.6 million Aussies suffer from hay fever.

If your favourite springtime accessory is a box of tissues, you will know the dread many people feel for the end of winter.

You might feel like flu season is over just in time for allergy season to start.

Although airborne allergens like pollen are at their peak in spring, people can suffer from hay fever all year long (due to other environmental allergens, like dust mites, mould and animal hair).

Apart from taking allergy medication that could have you falling asleep at your desk, there really isn’t much to do about your itchy eyes, nose and ears. Or is there?

Popular suggestions to minimise your hay fever symptoms include staying indoors as much as possible, gardening with plants pollinated by birds and insects, flushing your eyes with cold water, and keeping your house free of animal hair.

For most people, staying indoors during spring is a prison sentence, their gardening choices are irrelevant when their neighbour’s yard overflows with flowering daisies, and keeping their home dust-mite and dander free would be a 24/7 job.

Frustratingly, most popular remedies are unrealistic and accomplish nothing more than adding to your annoyance.

For people with severe or long-term hay fever problems, who feel general antihistamine tablets and decongestant or steroid nasal sprays don’t work for them, could talk to their doctor about allergen-specific immunotherapy.

This kind of therapy should only be prescribed by an allergy specialist, as it involves the regular administration of gradually increasing doses of allergen extracts over a period of years.

Scientific breakthroughs in asthma medication could also hold answers for some hay fever sufferers.

Australian scientists have developed a pill to safeguard asthma sufferers from ‘thunderstorm asthma’ attacks and say it could offer relief to hay fever sufferers as well.

You should always speak to your doctor or pharmacist before taking new medication.

Perhaps in the near future, spring won’t hold as many horrors for you.

Until then, be strong and soldier on.