MEDICAL MINUTE: POLLEN POLLUTION
Earlier this week, I walked out to my car for my normal commute to work and noticed something terrible: POLLEN! Surely, it couldn’t be that time of the year again! Sadly, it is. From February until the early parts of summer, our region will be invaded by that dust that is the bane of many peoples’ existence. Mild winters, like the one we experienced, can lead to plants pollinating early. Also, a rainy spring will promote the rapid plant grow that can make the problem worse. However, the yellow film on top my shiny black car left no doubt: allergy season about to get started in Mississippi.
The most common culprit for allergy season is ragweed (particularly in the fall), a plant that grows wild almost everywhere in our state. Other offending plants include sagebrush, pigweed, and rye grass. Even our local trees get in on the action. Cedars, Oaks, Pecans, and Pines produce a dry and lightweight pollen that can travel long distances on a breezy day. Typically, pollen levels peak in early morning hours and surge on warm, windy days. Rain can wash pollen away for a short time, however, pollen levels will soar again in the hours immediately following rainfall. Moving away to another climate won’t help either- allergens are virtually everywhere!
So what happens when you are exposed to an allergen? Well, let’s first take a look at how our bodies develop immunities. When we are young, our bodies begin programming T cells with specific blueprints on how to deal with body invaders. These T cells are trained in the thymus gland when we are young. As we age, the thymus gland begins to shrink until it is no longer functioning as we enter adulthood. These programmed T cells will carry the message of how to defeat certain enemies for the rest of our lives. Think of the T cells as war veterans that train the new generation on how to deal with a specific enemy. If they encounter a new enemy, they have to rely on B cells to fight that battle. This is why we get immunizations for various diseases when are a kid: to store the battle plan on our T cells.
If you have allergies, you probably have programmed T cells that work to fight the pollen. Sadly, the response to the pollen gives us what we consider to be our allergy symptoms. Coughing, runny nose, sneezing, and watering eyes are due to the body try to rid itself of the offending allergen. Looking a little further, T cells and another type of specific cells called IgEs cause the release of histamine inside the body. Histamine causes blood vessels to allow white blood cells to move with greater speed to attack the foreign bodies in the affected tissues. In large quantities, such as an exposure to an allergen that causes a serious allergic reaction, histamine can cause difficulty breathing, low blood pressure, and hives. Antihistamine medications work to stop production of histamine within the body. Often, this can relieve some of the worst of the allergy symptoms (You have histamine receptors in the brain, that’s why Benadryl makes some people feel sleepy). Other treatments include nasal steroids that cause an anti-inflammatory response that can relieve inflammation, swelling, and mucus production. Decongestants thin the nasal secretions and reduce swelling on the short-term. Cromolyn sodium, another nasal treatment, blocks histamine release and is generally used for treatment of hay fever. For serious cases, allergy shots can be given for patients who do not find relief in convention therapy methods.
Unfortunately, I can’t give you any solid advice on how to stop the inevitable march of allergies. By this point, you probably know what medications work well for you and which do not. Go ahead and stock up because things are just getting kicked off for our pollen polluters. If it becomes unbearable, contact your physician and get some stronger medications to combat this seasonal enemy. On a side note, if you have a topic that you would like covered, feel free to drop me an email at eric.williams@jcjc.edu and I will research it out for you. It might even show up in print! Stay safe out there.
M. Eric Williams, MS, NR-P is a syndicated columnist and the Assistant Director of Emergency Medical Technology Education at Jones County Junior College. He is a current Doctoral researcher at Delta State University and has 15 years’ experience in Emergency Medicine. If you have questions or comments, you may contact him at eric.williams@jcjc.edu
