It’s January. It’s cold, we long for summer and it might seem that a troublesome runny nose is again a symptom of infection. Nothing more wrong. If burning and tearing eyes are bothering us, there is a high probability that we are struggling with pollen allergy.
If the winter is mild, the hazel can start pollinating just after New Year’s Eve, although this moment usually falls on the second half of the month. Also in plants such as birch and alder, it is possible despite the cool weather, because male inflorescences were formed on these trees in early autumn at the latest, which we usually refer to as catkins.
Allergy or maybe a cold?
Catkins, releasing pollen grains, irritate the allergy sufferer’s mucous membranes, resulting in a watery runny nose, the respiratory tract seems to be blocked, and there is also burning eyes, sneezing and itching of the nose. Allergy is more difficult to relieve if its symptoms are confused with a cold, so we should look at which days we feel worse. If the malaise intensifies on sunny days, especially when we are away from home, and we start to feel relief only on days with snow or rain, we are most likely dealing with an allergy.
What teaches us?
January introduces us to a period of ten months during which allergy sufferers struggle with unpleasant ailments. The number of allergy sufferers is steadily increasing. Pollination takes place in plants when the total temperature rises to the level typical for a given species.
Hazel initiates pollination with increasing temperature. The time of its pollination may move until April, depending on the prevailing temperature, it falls on the mountain region at the latest. Hazel is usually the first source of pollen for bees. The bases are getting longer. With the arrival of windy, sunny days, pollen gets out of them. Due to the lack of leaves, pollen moves easily. If they reach the conjunctiva of the eye or the mucous membrane of the respiratory tract, an allergic reaction occurs.
Almost at the same time, alder pollen with high clinical significance occurs, which is related to the failure to recognize the symptoms of allergy in allergy sufferers. Allergy to alder crosses with allergens of hazel. We may struggle with one or both of them.
The earliest allergy will occur in the west, south-west and in the center of Poland. As a wind-pollinated plant, it will quickly increase the territory covered by its allergens. Allergic people should avoid walking through the park, especially on sunny days, until the dusting subsides.