Allergic Rhinitis: Introduction, Grass Pollen

The air is full of flying things. Luckily they're microscopic or you'd have to wear a suit of armor even in your own home. Unless you live in a sanitized glass bubble, it's impossible to completely avoid airborne allergens, such as pollen, dust mites, and pet dander. These identifiable flying objects cause allergic rhinitis, which simply means an inflammation of the nasal membranes. If you've heard of hay fever (and that includes everyone who has turned on a television or radio in the spring or summer, since there are so many commercials for antihistamines), then you know about allergic rhinitis: It's that drippy nose, itchy eyes and throat, and sneezing that's so familiar during pollen season.

Did You Know?
An estimated 35 million people in the United States have seasonal allergic rhinitis (hay fever).

While pollen is one of the most common triggers of allergic rhinitis, it is not the only one. Mold spores; dust-mite droppings; cockroach body parts; and animal dander can also prompt an allergic reaction. You can be allergic to only one or to several of these airborne particles.

The next few sections will help you understand the pollens, spores and pets that cause allergic rhinitis.

Pollens: Love is in the air...

Birds do it, bees do it, and so do plants. They all reproduce. Pollen grains, the stuff that makes you sneeze, are simply the microscopic male reproductive cells released by trees, grasses, and weeds. A pollen grain, similar to the male sperm, contains half the genetic material needed for reproduction.

Allergies and Climate
Myth: Moving to southwestern states will cure pollen allergies.

Fact: Moving to southwestern (or desert) states may relieve allergies for a few months. However, new allergies to local plants can develop within a short period of time. Additionally, people (both new residents and others) have transplanted their ornamental plants and grasses from "back home," introducing the same old pollens into a new environment. You can't move away from allergies, except maybe to the moon -- but they have moon dust up there.

Pollination occurs when pollen grains are released by one plant and carried by the wind to another similar plant in order to fertilize it. (Large pollen is also carried via birds and insects, but these don't cause you to sneeze.)

Love in the air elicits a romantic response from plant life, but for some forms of human life (i.e., allergy sufferers) it guarantees an allergic response. The terrible trio of tree pollens, grass pollens, and weed pollens causes misery for allergy sufferers, especially from spring to fall. Unlike the pollens from flowers and shrubs, this trio releases pollens that are light, numerous, and easily transported by the breeze.

You can get an idea of the kind of pollen that most troubles you simply by observing when your symptoms start and when they wane. Tree pollens, for instance, herald the beginning of the allergy season. Although pollen seasons vary by geographic region, those stately, shade-producing trees we love -- box elder, chestnut, ash, walnut, cottonwood, oak, elm, maple, willow, cedar, sycamore, and more -- typically send out showers of pollen from March through May. (In Texas, however, cedar pollen season is January!) Thankfully for aching noses and irritated lungs, tree pollination season is short-lived.

Grass Pollens

Just when you thought it was safe to venture outside, out pop grass pollens. More common than tree pollens, grass pollens generally reach their peak from mid-May to mid-July, although the timing varies by geographical region. In California and Florida, for instance, grass pollen season is from February through October. Grass pollens are larger than tree pollens (often you can see them in the air), and they affect the nose and eyes most drastically. There's no escape, as the wind transports grass pollens to all ends of the earth. With 9,000 grass species worldwide, it's hard to name all, but popular pollinators in North America include barnyard grass, Bermuda grass (in southern areas), bluegrass varieties, corn, fescue, ryegrass (cultivated lawn grass), cultivated wheat, and wheat grass.

In the next section, we will talk about a different kind of pollen that can affect you just as much as grass pollen. The offender? Weed pollen.

Colds vs. Allergies:
How to Tell Your Sniffles Apart
Allergic rhinitis symptoms (stuffed-up nose; sneezing; red, itchy eyes) are often mistaken for a cold. The main differences? With allergies, these symptoms continue for weeks or sometimes all year; with a cold, the symptoms persist for about 10 days and then disappear. Additionally, nasal discharge from an allergy sufferer is typically thin and clear, while those with a cold often have thick and yellowish discharge due to infection. But the two can tango together! When nasal membranes become irritated by the constant sneezing and sniffling caused by allergies, it's easy pickin's (no pun intended) for germs and viruses to move in and cause an infection.

Allergies ... last for weeks
Colds ... last up to 10 days

Allergies ... no fever
Colds ... fever common

Allergies ... no muscle aches
Colds ... frequent muscle or joint aches

Allergies ... not contagious
Colds ... very contagious

This information is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. Neither the Editors of Consumer Guide (R), Publications International, Ltd., the author nor publisher take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary modification, action or application of medication which results from reading or following the information contained in this information. The publication of this information does not constitute the practice of medicine, and this information does not replace the advice of your physician or other health care provider. Before undertaking any course of treatment, the reader must seek the advice of their physician or other health care provider.