Pollen Allergies:What Are They & How to Deal With Them

MONDAY, April 15, 2019 (AllergyInsider) If you sneeze, cough, have a runny nose, or experience other common allergy symptoms during peak pollen seasons, such as spring months, you’re not alone. More than 67 million people suffer from allergies, and of them, 81 percent report having a pollen allergy¹. In fact, pollen is one of the most common allergens in the United States.

So what is pollen, exactly?

In technical terms, it’s the male fertilizing agent of flowering plants, trees, grasses, and weeds.² In nontechnical terms, it’s the yellow powdery stuff that coats your car during spring.

Due to pollen’s microscopic size, it travels easily through the air, especially on windy days. This means that your allergic reaction might not be caused by pollen produced nearby, but rather from sources miles away. While there are thousands of plants that cause allergic reactions, the most common pollen allergy triggers are grasses, trees, and weeds. Here are some of the usual suspects for each:

Common Grass Pollen Allergy Triggers

Common Tree Pollen Allergy Triggers

Common Weed Pollen Allergy Triggers

· There’s a common misconception that all flowers cause symptoms such as allergic rhinitis (hay fever). In reality, plants fertilized by insects, such as roses and some flowering trees, do not typically cause allergic rhinitis³.

How to deal with pollen allergies

Many people deal with pollen allergy symptoms, or spring allergies, with over-the-counter medications and countless packs of tissues to deal with some of the following symptoms:

Here are seven tips to help you deal with pollen—and save on tissues:⁴

 Knowing that your symptoms can change from day to day depending on the weather, and that they could be caused by pollen floating in the air from miles away, doesn’t make finding relief any easier. But learning more about potential causes, allergy testing options, and trigger avoidance methods is a good start. To learn more about your pollen allergy symptoms, check out our in-depth analysis of symptoms here.