Labor Day might mark the unofficial start of fall for some but, for many others, the season began weeks ago with a miserable blend of sniffling, sneezing and watery eyes.
Fall allergy season seems especially bad this year, said Dr. Kenneth Backman, chief of Bridgeport Hospital’s allergy section.
“We are definitely seeing people with symptoms already,” said Backman, also president of Allergy and Asthma Care of Fairfield County. “And it definitely hit hard this year.”
He pointed out that this was a particularly rainy and warm summer, which likely caused heavy growth of the kinds of plants that trigger allergy symptoms. Allergies happen when the body’s immune system mistakes a substance for something harmful and overreacts to it. Allergy symptoms can include sneezing, stuffy or runny nose, watery or itchy eyes and other conditions.
Substances that trigger allergies can include pets, certain foods, mold or pollen. Pollen is a often a trigger for seasonal allergies, which predominantly happen in spring and fall.
Seasonal allergies are often called “hay fever” — a condition that affects 6.1 million children and 20 million adults nationwide, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
Fall allergies typically hit in mid-August, Backman said, and are spurred by pollen from certain plants, mainly ragweed. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation reports that about 23 million Americans have symptoms from an allergy to ragweed pollen.
Ragweed is a weed that grows throughout the United States but is particularly common in the East and Midwest. Ragweed plants only live a season, but a single plant can produce up to a billion pollen grains. Ragweed season can last anywhere from six to 10...
from News https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Fall-allergies-picking-up-in-state-14402987.php
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