Ailments from the respiratory system, mucous membranes of the eyes and nose, are more often associated with infection than with allergies, especially when there is a snow cover outside. It’s white all around, it’s freezing cold, we’re waiting for the bus at the bus stop, or we’re picking up children from kindergarten. Despite many opportunities for infection, it is not necessarily the cold that caught us in its trap.
We consider the plant pollen calendar to be open already in January. If the unpleasant symptoms are milder on days when it is snowing or raining, and they intensify when the perceived temperature is kinder to us, we can confidently suspect an allergy.
Allergic attackers of February
- Hazel pollination, initiated in the second decade of January, continues. We will not rest from allergies to the pollen of this plant for a long time, most likely we will struggle with it until the last days of March. Hazel can be found on plots and forests. Symptoms are especially intense during walks in orchards or gardens.
- The situation is similar in the case of alder, which also makes itself felt in January, albeit with a week delay compared to hazel. Although alder is not an urban plant, the towns absorbing peripheral areas, over time, begin to spread to the habitats that it overgrows. Compared to hazel, this plant is a much more annoying enemy of a statistical allergy sufferer.
- Walking through parks and gardens, we can also come across a yew, the pollination of which will last until March.
- In addition, we should beware of the fungus with extremely toxic spores, which is aspergillus. It can provoke not only rhinitis, but also inflammation of the alveoli or bronchial asthma.
Be aware of allergies!
Pollen allergy should not be treated leniently, if it appears, it is necessary to implement antihistamines. Otherwise, the development of edema of the respiratory tract is possible. Medicines preventing allergies can be safely used even before the symptoms of pollen. It is worth that allergic people should not wait for the first symptoms and implement appropriate preparations in accordance with the pollen calendar. A specific allergen to which we are susceptible can be diagnosed by conducting tests at an allergist, or by noticing the moment of the first signs of allergy, which are repeated from year to year.
Let us remember that the concentration of alder and hazel will intensify in the third decade of February.