As the day warms up, pollen count rises and peaks in the late afternoon and evening. If you suffer from seasonal allergies, plan your outdoor activities accordingly and try to avoid being outdoors when the pollen count is at its highest. An air purifier or special furnace filter also can help.
Every spring and summer, millions of Americans deal with the miserable symptoms brought on by seasonal allergies. Allergies develop when the immune system overreacts to a foreign substance called an allergen. Most of us suffer from a runny nose and watery eyes, and sometimes more severe symptoms, such as hives and vomiting, when we come in contact with an allergen, such as pollen.
While springtime allergies and temperature fluctuations that occur year-round offer their own challenges for our health, for asthma and allergy patients, cold, dry weather also brings headaches — and not only due to hacking coughs and sneezes.
“The problem during cold weather is that the air, when it’s dry, has a much higher absorbance for allergens,” explained Canh Le, who, in addition to being a clinical fellow in pediatrics at UCSF, is a team member of the Children’s Environmental Health Center. “That’s why you see asthma attack increasing during the winter.”
For most of us, dust and pet dander are all we need to worry about, but for patients with environmental allergies and asthma, the irritants in fumes and cosmetics, such as formaldehyde and gasoline, and smoke from fires have a more serious impact on the respiratory tract.
The particular relationship between air pollutants and the respiratory tract has, in fact, inspired Dr. Canh Le and his fellow researchers in the Children’s Environmental Health Center to examine whether children who were exposed to exhaust fumes with a high organic carbon who also were diagnosed with asthma had a higher risk of developing other respiratory tract infections, such as bronchitis, pneumonia and sinositis.
Physicians at the center screen all new pediatric patients for respiratory conditions and, at that time, collect blood the children. The center has provided the UCSF Clinical Laboratory with blood samples from more than 5,000 children, which the laboratory is using to develop diagnostic technologies that will be able to identify new biomarkers to better understand and diagnose respiratory tract conditions in children.
Canh Le, M.D.Canh Le, M.D.
Featured image: The effects of breathing exhaust fumes, like traffic’s, can persist for years. Photo by Mike Windle.
“There are lots of new studies showing that a lot of different personality traits have their own unique signatures in terms of genetic Level of hyperactivity that children are experiencing.”“Then, it’s very easy for the researchers to look at each one of these genetic variations and say, ‘Well, that group of children who have this genetic variation or trait tend to have higher risk of being other chronic condition or higher risk of having chronic disease.’“
The children with the genetic variation associated with hyperactive are at higher risk of being other chronic condition or having chronic disease.
Turns out, children with the genetic variation associated with hyperactive are at higher risk of being other chronic condition or having chronic disease.
According to a new study, the lowest pollen count of the day occurs between 4:00 a.m. and noon. The study, which was conducted by the University of Virginia, looked at data from the National Allergy Bureau’s pollen counting stations across the United States.
The study found that pollen counts were highest in the late afternoon and early evening, and lowest in the early morning hours. The researchers believe that this is due to the fact that plants release their pollen during the day, and that pollen levels are lowest when the plants are not actively releasing pollen.
This information is valuable for people who suffer from allergies, as it means that they can avoid being outdoors during the times of day when pollen levels are highest. If you suffer from allergies, make sure to check the pollen counts for your area before heading outdoors.
