Is your summer being ruined by what appears to be a drawn-out cold? Make sure you aren’t mistaking cold symptoms for those caused by seasonal allergies by following the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology’s Cold vs. Allergy Checklist:

- Have you experienced symptoms for two weeks or more? If your answer is yes, then your symptoms are more likely to be caused by allergies. Colds usually die out after a week or two, at most.

- Are your symptoms escalating? If your symptoms are escalating or progressing, then you probably have a cold. Colds tend to evolve, starting with a stuffy nose, irritated throat and fever. Then comes the sneezing and runny nose. Mucous also thickens as the cold progresses. In contrast, allergy symptoms tend to appear fairly quickly and don’t evolve.

- Do you have green or clear mucous? Colored mucous that appears yellow or green is usually related to an infection, while clear mucous tends to be allergy-related. But be careful: in some cases, the opposite can be true.

- Are you itching or wheezing? Itchy eyes, mouth, nose, throat or skin all tend to be signs of allergy, rather than a cold. Wheezing is a sign of asthma, which can be triggered by allergens such as mold or pollen. Asthma and allergy are related: between 75 and 80 percent of people with asthma are estimated to have allergies as well.

Pollen typically bears the brunt of the blame for seasonal allergies, but mold can be just as nasty. In fact, according to the ACAAI, mold counts can actually outnumber pollen counts, even during peak pollen season.

Learn more at www.AllergyAndAsthmaRelief.org.

1. A BETTER PILL
If you’re among the many who need an antihistamine to survive tree pollen season, it’s time to branch out. The diphenhydramine and chlorpheniramine pills that mom used to give you do help fight the drippy, weepy symptoms, but who needs the daily drowsies? One Canadian allergist describes seeing patients feeling sleepy up to four days after stopping these pills.

To the rescue: there are second-generation antihistamines on pharmacy shelves that are far less sedating. These include the brands Allegra, Clarinex, Claritin, Zyrtec, plus generic versions. In Canada, the brands include Aerius, Claritin, Reactine and Allegra.

Here’s a hot tip: try finding more than one brand that works for you. New York City allergist Dr. Paul Ehrlich, author of Asthma Allergies Children: A Parent’s Guide, recommends switching between drugs if, after several weeks, you find your body stops responding as well to one of the pills.

2. CLEANSE YOUR GARDEN
Your worst hay fever foe could be planted right outside your window, warns horticulturalist and author Tom Ogren. Take stock of your plants: if one has fruit or berries, it’s not male and won’t release pollen (female plants don’t produce pollen). If you can’t identify a plant on your own, take a clipping to a nursery for help identifying its gender.

“If you’ve got a highly allergenic plant, particularly if it’s in proximity to your doors, you should replace it with the exact opposite,” Ogren says. “You will have just made a wonderful change in your yard.”

Some examples of allergy-friendly flowering plants are: peonies, hydrangea, roses, foxglove, fuchsia and poppies. Click to see more allergy-friendly plants.

3. TAKE THE STING OUT
Have you got a stinging insect allergy? Then it’s high time you reclaimed spring and summer. Any reaction to the sting of a honeybee, yellow jacket, hornet or other insect that turned into more than itching and swelling at the sting spot suggests you’re at risk for a serious reaction.

“Almost all the time, patients who had a slight reaction the first time then had a more severe reaction the second, and they’re going to have a real problem if they get stung a third time,” Ehrlich says. “Each sting is worse than the previous one.”

That is, unless, you get allergy shots. The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology recommends that those who have had a systemic reaction to an insect sting, and who test positive to that venom, get immunotherapy. Doing so reduces the risk of a full-body reaction phenomenally – to less than 5 per cent. Dr. Paul Keith, a Canadian allergist, says an immunized person should be able to receive up to 50 stings at once before the body is overpowered by toxins.

Next: The Robot That Mows

On April 3, Dr. Mehmet Oz hosted a segment on his TV show called “How to Survive the Allergy Epidemic”. In keeping with many news reports released this spring, Dr. Oz declared: “This year, you’re going to feel even more miserable than ever before.”

New York allergist and Allergic Living contributor Dr. Clifford Bassett was invited to help explain to viewers why this may be. He said that climate change factors, such as warm seasons starting earlier and ending later, are to blame. He also noted that tree pollen and grass pollen seasons can overlap resulting in a “pollen bomb” that can cause misery for allergy sufferers.

Dr. Oz did an excellent job explaining how certain weather patterns can cause what allergy specialists and botanists now call ‘the priming effect’ – where pollen levels rise, fall and rise again in late winter and early spring. When it’s unseasonably warm, plants begin producing pollen early. When the temperature drops again, they stop, and then begin again once the warmer weather returns. In pollen-sensitive individuals, this can cause worsened allergy symptoms that are tougher to control because their immune system has been ‘primed’ for pollen allergens.

The topic of conversation then moved to treatment. Most medications for spring allergies work by blocking histamine receptors, so the histamine in one’s body has nowhere to bind to and cause symptoms. These treatments are effective for most people, but they treat the symptoms but not the underlying allergic disease. Upon each re-exposure, the symptoms will have to be blocked again.

This is why doctors often recommend immunotherapy, or allergy shots, in which a small amount of the allergen (i.e. pollen) is injected into a sensitized individual on multiple occasions over a long period of time. The goal is to allow the patient to build tolerance to the allergen and eventually no longer be sensitized to it.

The trouble with this traditional type of immunotherapy, which Dr. Bassett noted has been available for almost 100 years, is just that – the trouble: injections are required several times before each allergy season for several years, resulting in many, many hours in the allergist’s office.

Fortunately, Dr. Bassett informed Dr. Oz’s audience that sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT), which is a type of immunotherapy that uses under-the-tongue tablets or drops instead of needles, is gaining ground. It is far less invasive: once an allergist determines the proper dosage, a patient can actually conduct this immunotherapy by themselves, at home.

While not yet approved by the FDA, several clinical trials have demonstrated that this type of treatment can be effective, and it has been available in Europe for years. One brand, Oralair, was recently approved for prescription use in Canada.

See the full episode of The Dr. Oz Show here

See also:
Peanut Drops Hold Treatment Promise
Milk OIT Not Lasting
Dr. Oz on Nut Proteins in Olive Oils

Jackson, Mississippi has been declared the worst U.S. city to live in for those with spring allergies, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA). Jackson wrested the number one spot from Knoxville, Tennessee, which had held the dubious title three years running. Knoxville didn’t improve that much: it came in second this year.

In AAFA’s annual Spring Allergy Capitals list (released April 2) – the 100 largest U.S. cities are ranked according to how problematic they are for spring allergy sufferers. Three factors are taken into account: pollen scores, number of allergy medications used per patient, and number of allergy specialists per patient.

This year, Jackson was declared the “winner” due to higher than average pollen counts and medicine usage, despite the fact that the state capital was determined to have a greater number of allergists per patient than average. Here is a list of the top 10 spring allergy capitals for 2013:

1. Jackson, MS
2. Knoxville, TN
3. Chattanooga, TN
4. McAllen, TX
5. Louisville, KY
6. Wichita, KS
7. Dayton, OH
8. Memphis, TN
9. Oklahoma City, OK
10. Baton Rouge, LA

While most of the top cities were located in the south, where pollen season has already begun in earnest, some northern cities were present as well, such as Buffalo, New York, which ranked 15^th overall. Another northern city, Springfield, Massachusetts, rose an astonishing 74 spots to number 18, indicating this year’s spring will be much more challenging in this city for allergy sufferers than previous years.

Some other finds: the city with the overall highest pollen count was Wichita, Kansas. Virginia Beach had the lowest number of allergists per patient, while winner Jackson had the most medicine used per patient.

This report coincides with numerous news reports that say this year’s allergy season will be “the worst yet,” and which cite the increase in pollen concentration because of climate change factors.

The “worst yet” claim is becoming an annual spring ritual in itself in news reporting. Those contending with hay fever should be aware that these claims tend to be based on anecdotal evidence of doctors seeing more allergy patients, and the fact that scientists have been accumulating data on longer pollinating seasons. They are not based on actual pollen counts.

As well, allergy triggers aren’t equally distributed across the country: high pollen counts in Mississippi don’t necessarily equate to a bad allergy season in Washington.

Still, it is possible that this year will be the “worst allergy season yet”– at least until next year.

See the AAFA’s full list

One of the tablets, known as Oralair, recently became available by prescription in Canada, but not the United States. This pill has proven effective in international studies, and is now approved by Health Canada.

Another tablet, known as Grazax in Europe, has been submitted to the FDA in the United States for final approval. Unfortunately, the tablet (which will have a different brand name in the U.S.) most likely won’t become available until next year’s grass season at the earliest.

When it comes to grass allergy, taking antihistamines does the job for some people. But allergists have traditionally steered those with more severe symptoms and asthma toward immunotherapy, also known as allergy shots. The tablets are a new form of this therapy – called sublingual immunotherapy, or SLIT, because the dose is taken under the tongue.

Although it’s recommended to begin taking these tablets four months before allergy season begins, they have been known to show significant improvement after being taken for as little as one month. This is far less invasive and time-consuming than traditional immunotherapy: instead of visiting an allergist several times to get your shots, you can simply place a tablet under your tongue and allow it to dissolve.

Sublingual immunotherapy is actually not so new.  For years now, researchers have been studying it, not just for grass allergy but potentially for food allergy as well. It works with the same principle as traditional allergy shots: introduce tiny amounts of the specific allergen into the patient’s system (in this case, via drops), with the goal of building toward tolerance.

See also:

Allergic Living’s Full Report on SLIT for Grass Allergy
Milk OIT Not Lasting

You’ve banished gardening from your life, uprooted your plants and spend your Spring hiding indoors. Little do you know, there are hundreds of low-allergy options for your garden. What’s more, many of these are far more beautiful than their pollen-pouring counterparts, because they have to stand out in order to attract bees and other pollinating insects. Here is Allergic Living‘s list of potentials for your low-allergy garden:

Photo: JENNIFER BYRON/Getty

Flowering Plants

• Lathyrus odoratus – Sweet pea
• Catharanthus roseus – Periwinkle
• Digitalis – Foxglove
• Impatiens – Impatiens
• Myosotis – Forget-me-nots
• Nierembergia – Cup flower
• Petunia – Petunia
• Viola – Johnny jump up, pansy, violet
• Brodiaea – Dlephant’s ears
• Crocus – Spring-flowering crocus
• Cyclamen – Cyclamen
• Galanthus – Snowdrops
• Gladiolus – Gladiolus
• Hyacinth – Hyacinth (numerous varieties)
• Gentiana – Gentian
• Geranium – True geranium, cranesbill
• Hemerocallis – Day lily
• Peony – Peony
• Polemonium – Jacob’s ladder
• Rhododendron – Azalea, rhododendron
• Fuchsia – Fuchsia
• Dianthus – Carnation, pinks
• Papaver – Poppy
• Begonia – Fibrous or tuberous begonia
• Rosa – Rose (avoid high-scent varieties)
• Phlox – Phlox
• Iris – Iris
• Erythrocoma triflora – Prairie smoke
• Kniphofia – Red Hot Poker
• Clematis – Clematis
• Tulipa gesneriana – Tulip (bulbs may irritate sensitive skin)
• Penstemon – Beardtongue
• Antirrhinum – Snapdragon
• Asclepias tuberosa – Butterfly weed
• Hibiscus – hibiscus
• Narcissus – Daffodil
• Bulbine frutescens – bulbine

Shurbs/Bushes/Herbs

• Coleus blumei – Coleus
• Hosta – Hosta, plantain lily
• Physalis – Chinese lantern
• Sempervivum – Hens and chicks
• Hydrangea grandiflora – Big leaf hydrangea
• Viburnum – Viburnum shrubs, highbush cranberry, nannyberry
• Heuchera – Coral bells (many varieties)
• Teucrium crispum – Wood sage
• Physocarpus opulifolius – Dart’s gold, ninebark
• Bergenia – Elephant’s ears
• Kolkwitzia amabilis – Beauty bush
• Aronia melanocarpa – Black chokeberry
• Rodgersia pinnata – Featherleaf rodgersia
• Helianthemum – Sunrose, rock rose
• Gaura – Gaura, beeblossom
• Vaccinium corymbosum – Blueberry bush
• Berberis vulgaris – Barberry bush
• Daphne – Daphne
• Nandina domestica – Nandina
• Salvia greggii – Autumn sage
• Salvia clevelandii – Cleaveland sage, blue sage

Trees

• Stick to female trees, which may drop berries or seeds but don’t produce pollen
• Persimmon  – persimmon tree
• Amelanchier lamarkii – juneberry tree

Vines/Climbing Plants

•  Thunbergia alata – Black-eyed Susan vine

Sources: Allergy-Free Gardening, by Thomas Leo Ogren, Creating a Low-Allergen Garden, by Lucy Huntington, Peter Prakke, Horticulturalist, Olivia Kirk, Landscape & Garden Designer for KKE Architects and Melissa Gable, University of California Davis arboretum.

See Also: Plants to Avoid

The following plants can cause problems for people with allergies and should be avoided. In general, it’s a good idea to avoid any plant which releases its pollen into the air, rather than relying on insects for pollination. For sensitive individuals, it is also a good idea to avoid anything that gives off a strong scent, such as certain rose varieties.

The Plants to Avoid: Botanical and Common Names

Flowering Plants

• Amaranthus caudatus – love lies bleeding, tassel flower
• Chrysanthemum – chrysanthemum, daisy (numerous varieties)
• Thalictrum – buttercup
• Aster – aster
• Daucus carota – Queen Anne’s lace, wild carrot
• Doronicum – leopard’s bane
• Alyssum – alyssum
• Leontopodium alpinium – edelweiss
• Ligustrum – privet hedge
• Tanacetum – tansy, painted daisy
• Cryptomeria japonica – Japanese cedar
• Celosia – cockscomb
• Echinacea purpurea – purple coneflower
• Syringa – lilac
• Matthiola – stocks
• Lavendula – lavender

Shurbs/Bushes/Herbs

• Artemesia – wormwood, tarragon
• Ligustrum – privet hedge
• Hydrangea paniculata & quercifolia – pee-gee and oak leaf hydrangea

Trees

• Cryptomeria japonica – Japanese cedar

Grasses

• Carex – sedge

Vines and Climbing Plants

• Hedera – ivy

Now that you’ve rooted out all the allergy-offenders from your garden, it’s time to check out our list of sneeze-free options.

Sources: Allergy-Free Gardening, by Thomas Leo Ogren, Creating a Low-Allergen Garden, by Lucy Huntington and Peter Prakke, Horticulturalist.

See Also: Low-Allergy Plants

According to a study presented by Dr. Leonard Bielory at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, pollen counts are expected to more than double by that year.

Bielory, who is a leading investigator of plants and climate change, explains that in the year 2000, pollen counts averaged 8,455. By 2040, they are predicted to reach 21,735.

To create these far-reaching forecasts, the Rutgers researchers study allergenic plants in special climate chambers that mimic future conditions.

Naturally, along with this news there was a related finding: the sneezing season will begin earlier every year.

Top 10 Tips For Managing Grass Allergy:

1. Let’s get obvious: don’t mow the lawn, delegate. Ah, you live alone, there’s no one to delegate to. In that case, allergists advise Allergic Living that it’s best to: take an antihistamine before mowing and wear an N95 protective mask.

2. Keep the lawn short, that way, it’s not pollinating. (Grass pollinates through the air, not by insects like showy flowers. This is why it gets so easily into the nasal passages and eye ducts.)

3. Check your local forecast and pollen count every day. On high grass pollen count days, head for the mall or take in a movie; not a good time to be outdoors. Damper days are better: the wetness holds the pollen on the ground.

4. Cool  your home with a combination of closed blinds and drapes and air conditioning. It’s important to keep the windows shut to keep out grass pollen, which pollinates for most of the summer.

5. Change your clothes when you coming in from a few hours outside. Washing your clothes frequently will reduce your personal pollen load.

6. Change the clothes frequently of babies and toddlers, so you don’t inhale the pollen they’ve picked up. Also, wipe off the dog’s fur and bathe the animal (more frequently than he’ll care for) during the summer.

7. The heck with that outdoors smell: do not hang out your just-washed laundry in the pollen-filled summer breeze.

8. Don’t tough it out, seek medication relief and enjoy your summer. Start by trying a newer, non-sedating antihistamine for daily control during the height of grass pollen season.

9. If antihistamines alone don’t help enough, visit your allergist and ask about nasal corticosteroid sprays. These can be highly effective. You may also be a candidate for allergy shots (immunotherapy), for relief in the years to come. For eye symptoms, your allergist can prescribe good eye drops.

10. When your grass-allergic child will be playing on grass, aside from taking medications, he/she should wear cool but long pants when possible to avoid contact.

In better news, high grass-pollinating season ends with the arrival of August.

One thing May-Treanor is adamant about this time, is that her nasal allergies won’t get in the way. They came close to doing so at the Beijing Games in 2008: “It started with the smog. It was hard to breathe,” May-Treanor told Allergic Living in a phone interview. She felt that the city’s air pollution was combining with her pollen allergies to bring on a sinus infection.

This is common for the Californian: her allergies kickstart symptoms that just get worse. In Beijing, they moved down into her chest. She and Walsh took the gold, “but it was unfortunate. Nobody wants to be sick when they’re competing in the Olympics,” she says.

When Teva Respiratory approached May-Treanor this year about taking part in a campaign called Ditch the Drip – which aims to raise awareness of the health impact of allergic rhinitis – May-Treanor was all for it.

“Too often people just say: ‘It’s just sneezing and itchy eyes, I can handle it,’” she says. “But I’ve had sneezing attacks where it’s 20 sneezes in a row and your eyes feel all itchy. It gets in the way.”

May-Treanor liked that the campaign, which is also sponsored by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), emphasizes that people should not take the condition for granted, “but instead get checked out by a doctor.”

The campaign points out that under 20 percent of nasal allergy sufferers think their seasonal allergies are under control. This can lead  to sleep disturbances and impaired productivity.

“The key thing is being prepared” to handle your rhinitis, advises May-Treanor. Today, she takes her medications, is aware of the climate (and pollen count) going into a foreign country and meets with her trainers and allergist to make sure she’s receiving proper medications for her condition.

Next: Olympic Ready