What Climate Change Means for Allergies

Climate change is creating the perfect conditions for allergies to thrive.

The extended lengths of warm weather, increased and severe rain, more carbon monoxide – it’s all good for the plants that cause allergy symptoms. They thrive in those conditions, and release even more pollen, for even longer lengths of time. Here’s what’s happening, and why it’s making your allergy season miserable.

Longer Allergy Seasons

You may have already noticed that allergy seasons are getting longer and longer, with symptoms lingering for months instead of just a few weeks. Research examining pollen seasons from 1995 to 2015 found that, depending on the region, pollen seasons increased by six to 24 days. While the exact length of today’s pollen seasons varies by location and year, these findings help explain why many people experience longer-lasting allergy symptoms.

Increased Symptoms

Beyond just the seasons lasting longer, symptoms are known to be more severe as time goes on. The main reason for this is simple – more pollen in the air means more symptoms.

But, there are other factors, too. With the torrential rains and flooding that come along with climate change, mold increases. Adding mold symptoms to an immune system already loaded with pollen symptoms can lead to an overload of symptoms.

Wildfires and poor air quality from climate change can add to that pile of symptoms, with respiratory discomfort and added asthma symptoms. Wildfire smoke has been known to bother people living even states away, and a study shows that it can exacerbate atopic dermatitis, asthma and allergic rhinitis.

How to Feel Better

There are certainly changes we can make individually to help reduce our impact on the climate, but there are ways to feel better faster from your allergy symptoms.

One route is to treat the symptoms with things like antihistamines, creams, nasal sprays, and other over the counter products. These are meant to just control symptoms, so they will have to be continually used to avoid allergies.

Allergychoices recommends, instead, treating the cause of the allergy. Through allergy drop treatment, patients are exposed to tiny amounts of the allergens they’re allergic to. The amount of allergens is slowly increased until the body learns to tolerate it. When exposed to allergens in the wild, the body learns to not react with symptoms.

If you’re ready to get to the bottom of your allergies, find a provider near you that offers testing and treatment.