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Spring in the Lowcountry is marked by the excitement of The Verizon Heritage, magnolia blossoms, indigo buntings, and the dread of washing pollen from everything. The yellow dust that falls from the sky in South Carolina’s spring coats everything from windowsills and sails to nasal passages and windpipes. This onslaught, says Wilfried Karmaus, MD, MPH, Director for Epidemiology at the Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina results in many new arrivals and long time locals sneezing Dr. Karmaus explains that, physiologically, when pollen penetrates the nasal skin it and is identified as an intruder by the immune system all defenses are activated. This chain reaction quickly leads to the release of histamines which “trigger the widening of the skin and the release of fluids.”
To the allergy suffer, this release of fluids is starting flag for the sneezing, coughing, constantly runny nose, and relentlessly itchy, watery eyes, that mark spring.
Whether a person is has allergies to pollen, Dr. Karmaus says, can depend on a wide range of factors. Things like level of exposure to pollen, the time of year when a person was born, and even a person’s mother’s allergies can have an impact in determining one’s dependence on antihistamines.
And, he adds, there is another factor. “Every move can trigger some cross-reaction,” he warns.
In other words, your move to the Lowcountry could spell certain allergic suffering.
Allergies are a complex irritant. They can range from the pet dander thrown by an aunt’s too-loving cat, to the smoke of a cigarette, to the aforementioned stuff that keeps plants making new plants.
While some allergens are constant like the dust of a bachelor pad, or the aforementioned cat, others are seasonal like pollen. And a person who doesn’t suffer from goldenrod, is not immune to grass pollen. In fact, while the body reacts to pollen allergies in the same way, not all pollens will illicit this response.
Small steps like washing plush toys, changing central air filters, keeping the windows closed, or hanging comforters outside where UV rays can obliterate dust mites, can offer minimal relief to most patients.
But pharmaceuticals are needed by most allergy sufferers.
The good news is that allergists have a wide array of products at their disposal that they can offer to free you from the indoors, or perhaps, make the indoors tolerable.
In recent years, the available treatments for allergies have expanded as new pharmaceuticals have come on to the market, and others have become available over the counter. Many of these drugs are able to control the symptoms that many patients experience from every day and seasonal allergies.
But, Dr. Karmaus cautions that the body’s reaction to a bacterial or viral invader can sometimes mimic the response to a nasal allergy.
“Infections and allergies are connected,” he says.
If an allergy is an infection, or an infection is allergy, the correct diagnosis will be the only way to truly replace “Gesundheits” with “Good Mornings.”
