For many people, warmer temperatures bring about many delights. To begin, we experience longer hours of daylight. Mental health conditions like seasonal depression are associated with a lack of sunlight. Thus, more hours of sunlight helps to boost your mood and focus. Also, we can spend more time outdoors basking in and absorbing vitamin d from the sun. The reality, however, is that not everyone experiences the same joys of springtime. For some people, spring means more allergic symptoms, reactions, and risks for breathing complications. The reason for all of this is pollen.
What is Pollen?
Have you ever walked out to your car first thing in the morning and noticed a thin powdery substance on the hood, trunk, or roof? That’s pollen!
Pollen is a powdery substance made from plants, flowers, certain grasses, and trees. Plants need pollen to reproduce. But pollen isn’t solely responsible for thriving plant life. Pollen also helps plants make the produce we eat and need for survival.
Is Pollen Bad?
Pollen is necessary not only for the survival of plants but also for humans. However, some people need to avoid direct contact with pollen because it has harmful effects on their bodies. These people have a sensitivity or allergy to pollen. To them, pollen is an allergen.
What is an Allergen?
The short answer is that allergens are foreign substances that you inhale or consume. Your body doesn’t produce them and considers them harmful. Your body fights to get rid of them through your immune responses. These responses cause the allergic symptoms you experience, like sneezing, runny nose, watering eyes, coughing, congestion, wheezing, and trouble breathing.
What Causes Allergies?
Pollen allergies are the most common type or form of an allergy. There are over 150 types of pollen that contribute to pollen allergies. However, the most common pollen allergens come from one of these groups: grasses, trees, or weeds.
Grass Pollen
Grass pollen allergies are the most common of all pollen allergies. The allergy appears in plants from the Poaceae family. These plans are widespread and are known to produce lots of pollen. Grass pollen allergies are seasonal. They begin around pollination periods. In most places, this period starts around springtime and ends at the end of the summer.
Tree Pollen
Certain trees like birch, chestnut, and oak trees also contribute to seasonal allergies. But, their pollen doesn’t only affect your breathing. The same allergen is also present in some foods, such as apples. This allergen is different from a food allergy because the underlying allergen source is pollen. You may notice that some apples are safe, while others cause an allergic reaction. The culprit, pollen!
Weed Pollen
We consider plants that are neither grasses nor trees, weeds. However, weeds are technically plants. Ragweeds are the most pollen-producing weird that contributes to your seasonal allergies. Ragweed season starts later than grass pollen season. It starts around mid-summer and ends soon after fall begins.
What Makes Pollen Worse?
Pollen is sensitive to variables like temperature, carbon dioxide, and environmental pollutants. There appears to be a direct relationship between them. Warmer temperatures result in higher pollen concentrations. Pollen indices are higher in the morning when the weather is sunny and hot and reach their peak in the midday. We experience warmer or hotter temperatures when there’s an increased concentration of carbon dioxide and vice versa. Environmental pollutants don’t contribute to higher levels of pollen. However, they do contribute to its release. Additionally, in urban cities, pollutants cause pollen concentrations to remain high, even after temperatures cool. There is a reason for this: global warming.
Global Warming
The planet is warming, and there are significant consequences of global warming. One consequence is climate change. Climate change is responsible for warmer temperatures. And why the weather stays warmer for extended periods. On average, we experience 20 more days of hot temperatures now. Climate change also worsens the pollen season and also worsens health conditions, like asthma and allergies. Considering that pollen, a known allergen, is more concentrated when the temperatures are warmer, it should come as no surprise that it increases the risk of breathing problems.
The Pollen, Allergies, and Asthma Connection
Pollen seasons are especially harmful to people with sensitive airways. And there is a clear relationship between pollen concentration levels and risks for allergies, asthma exacerbations, and full-blown attacks. The presence of other allergens, such as dust mites and mold, can increase your sensitivity to pollen. That is why people with breathing conditions like allergies and asthma need to avoid other known allergens as best as possible. Decreasing your risk of health complications includes tracking pollen count/levels, avoiding known sensitivities, and creating a plan of action. Learn about how Huddy Health can help you with this and more here.