I was so glad that this article made the point that allergic conjunctivitis is not contagious. So many people hear the word “conjunctivitis” and they are afraid to go near you. My son gets seasonal allergic conjunctivitis and every year the school nurse wants to send him home! I hope she reads this article and develops a little more sensitivity!

Athletic asthma is also called exercise induced asthma. This is different from ‘regular’ asthma because it is only triggered by physical activity. Although exercise can cause someone with asthma to have an asthma attack. Usually athletic asthma is found in children and current information indicates that these children may have very mild asthma that is only triggered by exertion.

Why does any of this matter to me? Because I’m beginning to think my child may have athletic asthma and as any parent can tell you, a child’s health is way up on the list of priorities. So back to my overly paranoid mommy brain. Whenever my son is playing and he gets all hot and sweaty (takes about 15 min of running) he gets kind of congested like a cough. Well that was how we found out I had asthma (cough etc, not typical wheezing although mine is allergy induced not athletic).

Fortunately, just like with any other form of asthma it can be treated and I will be taking my son to his pediatrician for a checkup soon. Do you or your children have athletic asthma? Do you have any advice you’d like to share? It’s amazing how comforting it can be just knowing others have gone through the same things.

Anyways

Photo Credit: Mattsip

Plant pollination occurs every spring, summer, and fall. The pollen grains released by trees, grasses, and weeds cause illness and suffering in over 40 million Americans. Pollen forecasts measure the amount and types of pollen present in the air, providing allergy sufferers the knowledge of when to avoid being outside.

Learn more about pollen forecasts in this article.

I hate how I can never seem to go outside during the spring without sneezing and having itchy eyes, yet my best friend can be outside all day and never have any symptoms. Why do some people experience allergies, while others seem to be fine during pollen season? And what can I do to control my runny nose, itchy eye and sneezing without taking medications?

In any case there are some interesting points in this article.

This article talks about what triggers hay fever and what to do about it. Hay fever actually doesn’t have anything to do with hay, nor does it cause a fever—in fact, it’s another common name for a pollen allergy. As anyone with allergies knows, they can greatly affect your everyday life, but fortunately, there are many things you can do to alleviate it.

I’ve had mold allergies for years. I feel really torn after reading this because running the air conditioner and dehumidifier all the time would definitely cut down on the mold in my house, but it would use so much electricity and really raise my carbon footprint. I don’t want to contribute to global warming but I don’t want to feel sick either!

I tell everyone my husband is allergic to mosquitoes. Why? Because each bite swells up to about the size of a quarter and makes his health go downhill faster than you can say, well…mosquito. In addition to the normal itching the site of the bite gets painful and if he has more than one or two he’ll get cold like symptoms. We combat it by giving him a topical anti-itch cream and an antihistamine. This works pretty well.

The thing is, I did some research and I’m not sure it’s an actually allergy. Not like a bee sting allergy anyway. I don’t know for sure of course because my husband has a serious allergy to doctors and avoids them like I avoid dust mites. Really, what it is with men and doctors? Anyway, whether it is a legitimate allergy or not, it responds to allergy medication and makes him feel horrible so I suppose it should qualify. Right?  You know what makes it worse though? They love him. I mean the kind of love poets write sonnets about. They flock to him like a bear to honey, it’s the craziest thing I ever saw. We’ll both be out in the same place for the same amount of time and he’ll end up with a half dozen bites or more and I’ll have all of none.

Which brings me to my question, do any of you have allergy symptoms when bitten by a mosquito? If so are you also a mosquito magnet and have you found anyway to combat this magnetism?

Photo Credit: James Jordan

I was always sick and I never knew exactly why until I read this article.  I discovered that I suffer from hay fever due to my area’s high pollen count and animal dander. I took steps to avoid my triggers by following the tips in the article and spoke to my doctor about medication. Now, I am no longer sick all the time and feel great!

I swear you’d think I was the biggest crybaby in the entire world the way people sometimes look at me. As a matter of fact I’m not the kind of bird that cries at all around other people. But to look at my eyes sometimes you’d never know that. I use to get sooo tired of people looking at me that way and asking me if I was ok. I’d say yeah, just allergies. Then they’d sort of, how to put it…look like they wanted to pat me on the back and then just nod. Like I was lying. Like they thought someone had died, or my husband beat me or I was emotionally unstable.

Seriously, people. It’s just allergies. Yes, they are a pain to live with but when someone tells you that their red rimmed watery eyes are not a big deal could you at least give them the benefit of the doubt and not look at them (ME!) like their mental health was in question? It’s bad enough to feel like I do when my allergies are in overdrive without having to feel like a two year old. Rant over.

Do your allergies cause you to have red watery eyes and want to cry (haha) because of the way people treat you?

Photo Credit: Care SMC

Ugh, hay fever! Every spring it’s the same: itchy eyes, runny nose and lots of sneezing.

Did you know that it’s not the pollen that causes hay fever symptoms? It’s actually your immune system releasing chemicals called histamines because it (wrongly) assumes that the pollen is a threat. The histamines are what actually promote those icky symptoms. Read this for more interesting info about hay fever.