If you’re feeling like there are more allergens in the air early this spring, you might be right. University of Missouri researchers say pollen counts do appear to be rising, year-over-year.
“The nice thing is the St. Louis pollen station has the pollen counts year to year and it does seem like each year the pollen counts are kind of getting higher overall now," said Dr. Christine Franzese, an otolaryngologist at the University of Missouri’s ENT and Allergy Center.
She and her team have been researching and implementing new methods of allergy relief for their patients and advising Mid-Missouri residents on how to better understand the different causes of seasonal allergies.
“It seems like it never ends. But technically, what most people feel is the allergy season is about nine months long," Franzese said. "Depending on what you're allergic to, it'll generally start with the spring allergies with the trees, which will generally start around February. If things get a little warmer, sometimes a little sooner. The trees will happen first and then it just sort of melds in with the summertime pollen, which are grasses, all the way through towards the end of summer, falling into the weeds.”
As well as researching the possible causes behind the rise in seasonal allergies, she focuses on studying possible solutions to common allergy symptoms in effort to help patients affected have a better understanding of their symptoms and the underlying causes . A solution that she highly recommends is allergy testing and then monitoring environmental conditions.
“There's a couple different strategies that we can give our patients. So, One is consider getting allergy tested. Not that you have to do allergy immunotherapy, but sometimes it can be helpful for people to learn exactly what they're reacting to. So if you know specifically your spring allergy triggers or are oak, or hickory or a particular tree in your region or weed or grass, then that is where using apps on your phone that track pollen [are useful].”
