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.

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

HEADACHE

Allergies cause fluid to build up in the sinuses, putting pressure on the nerves in the area. This can lead to a headache directly above the eyes. The pain is different for each person, and can come on suddenly or gradually.

SLEEPINESS

Fluid in the sinuses puts pressure on the brain, sometimes resulting in fatigue, says Dr. Paul Ehrlich, a pediatric allergist based in New York. Other  reasons for daytime fatigue? A lack of nighttime sleep, caused either by your congested nose which makes it difficult to breathe or a decongestant medication containing pseudoephedrine, which is a stimulant and can keep you awake. Some antihistamines have a sedative effect and can make you feel tired during the day. Finally, hay fever sufferers can become overtired from constantly fighting the body-wide reaction.

IRRITABILITY

Usually caused by that lack of sleep, irritability is an under-recognized but very real
symptom of hay fever, says Vancouver allergist Dr. Donald Stark. Another cause: times of high stress often coincide with the different allergy seasons – and the convergence of the two would make anyone grouchy. For example, students’ final exams in June are at the height of grass pollen season, and back to school in September coincides with the start of ragweed season.

Next page: Aggravated eyes, nose, ears and cheeks

Dr. Waserman: Daffodils are considered “allergy-friendly,” since plants with showy flowers are generally pollinated by insects rather than the wind. Daffodils produce less pollen, and symptoms such as allergic rhino-conjunctivitis and asthma aren’t commonly associated with them.

However – handling daffodils is another story. Among florists and flower pickers, allergic contact dermatitis, irritant contact dermatitis (from sap) and hives are quite common.

Your daughter may have had an allergic or irritant contact dermatitis reaction or urticaria (hives). I recommend that she not handle daffodils and related narcissus varieties.

While unusual with daffodils, the throat symptoms might be an acute reaction, or anxiety as you suggest. Your daughter needs to be assessed by an allergist. If her symptoms and testing indicate allergic rhinitis, the allergist likely will prescribe intranasal steroids to alleviate the allergy.

We welcome your question to Allergic Living’s Ask the Allergist. Thank you for understanding that the specialists aren’t able to answer every question received.

Dr. Susan Waserman is an allergist and Professor of Medicine in the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont. She is also a past president of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

The study, which put 123 people with ragweed allergy in a specially-controlled room with their allergen for three hours, found that those who were also allergic to dogs, cats and dust mites developed symptoms faster, or experienced stronger symptoms, than those who didn’t have the other allergies.

However, the differences between the two groups lessened as the hours went on (they filled out questionnaires every 30 minutes) suggesting that once ragweed season is in full swing, everyone is affected equally.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Anne Ellis, and her team at Kingston General Hospital in Ontario suggest that to avoid this early, intense reaction, ragweed, allergy sufferers should treat their other allergies with immunotherapy or year-round allergy medication.

Another option is to limit exposure to dogs or cats leading up to ragweed season.

The ragweed in my backyard in the Ottawa Valley waves at me smugly every morning. It has formed a towering wall along the back corner of the small meadow we’ve let flourish as an environmental gesture. All the other wildflowers in the meadow co-exist happily, but the ragweed, which characteristically found a toehold in the least promising soil, has now started to elbow its way toward to the front. Unfortunately, its braggadocio is well-founded.

Not only is ragweed an aggressive competitor, it is an able procreator that produces pollen of unrivaled allergic potency. Its pollen triggers reactions in up to 75 per cent of hay fever sufferers, depending on where they live in North America, making this one weed to be reckoned with.

Operation Proliferate

The tens of millions of Americans who now suffer from ragweed allergies can thank Canada for their misery. Common ragweed’s likely point of origin in North America was Ontario, according to Dr. Peter Creticos, clinical director of the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. He jokingly calls ragweed “Canada’s gift to the colonies,” referring to the plant’s ability to dump hundreds of thousand of tons of dust-like pollen across up to 1,000 kilometres of the continent every year.

Now ragweed can be found all across eastern and central Canada and the United States, though there is thankfully little of it west of the Rockies. The crown-shaped seeds are highly mobile and have even deployed overseas, particularly near existing and former Canadian and U.S. military bases in Western Europe.

Creticos suspects the seeds hitched a ride on equipment shipped from North America during and after the wars, then launched a horticultural offensive into Eastern Europe, where it now enjoys a strong presence. For allergy sufferers, misery loves company.

Flourishing on the Farm

Back in North America, common ragweed and its big brother, giant ragweed, are causing havoc in the crop farming sector. Clarence Swanton, a University of Guelph professor and weed scientist, says ragweed grows well along roadsides and train tracks, but really loves the rich, loosely tilled soil of corn, soybean and cereal crop fields.

“Ragweed seedlings emerge early and therefore are very competitive with the crop for light, water and nutrients,” he says. Swanton estimates bean crop losses in Ontario alone range from 8 to 30 per cent, representing millions of dollars annually.

The Ontario government’s chief of weed control, Mike Cowbrough, says uncontrolled ragweed can cause yield losses of up to 80 per cent in some operations – a financial disaster for farmers. He says ragweed is one of the toughest weeds to control: it takes repeated mowings to prevent the plant from blossoming, its seeds can remain dormant for up to 50 years, and several strains have become resistant to traditional herbicides.

In the United States especially, some ragweed has even become immune to glyphosate (known in the retail sector as Roundup), once thought to be the magic bullet for weed control.

Frustrated farmers with glyphosate-resistant ragweed are creating herbicidal blends, incorporating older herbicides like 2,4-D and dicamba in hopes that their ragweed is not resistant to those mixtures. But farmers who market organic produce are in a conundrum, since herbicides are a no-no. Control often has to be done mechanically with a cultivator, which can speed soil erosion, or even manually.

Soybean farmers must also contend with ragweed’s staining quality, which can turn the pristine white soybean – and the tofu it’s used to make – to an unappealing shade of green.

Next Page: The Problem Grows