Temperatures will soon start to rise, ushering in spring — and spring allergy season. Thanks to milder winters and increased precipitation, pollen seasons are longer and more severe than they used to be. That’s why the best time to take your usual allergy medications is earlier in the season than you might think, experts say.
With allergy seasons picking up earlier than they did in the past, starting your medications even earlier can make a huge difference in keeping your symptoms under control. Letting them go untreated, however, can leave you feeling miserable — and make it harder to treat your runny nose, sneezing, fatigue and itchy, watery eyes.
“The longer you have symptoms, if they’re not treated well, it builds up so that your symptoms can get worse and worse,” Dr. William Reisacher, an otolaryngic allergist at Weill Cornell Medicine, tells TODAY.com.
That means the key to keeping your symptoms at bay all spring (and summer and fall) is figuring out what types of pollen you’re allergic to, learning when they tend to spread and starting your over-the-counter medications early in the season for your set of allergens.
How severe will this allergy season be?
It’s not clear yet how severe the 2024 spring allergy season will be. But with climate change causing milder winters, allergy seasons are generally getting more severe, too, Dr. Michelle Pham, allergist and immunologist at UCSF Health, tells TODAY.com.
With milder winters, “you don’t get the benefit of the frost, so you have a longer growing season,” Dr. Tanya Elliott, a board-certified allergist at NYU Langone Health, explained during a March 9, 2023, segment on the TODAY Show.
But we’re also seeing more precipitation, she said. “So you have more rainfall and warmer weather, (which is a) perfect storm for allergy season to start sooner.”
While that’s frustrating news for anyone with seasonal allergies, it’s especially dangerous for those who have asthma that’s triggered by…
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