Advice
The sights, sounds and smells of spring's arrival are generally cause for celebration, but for a rising number of unfortunates they are also portents of hay fever, the seasonal blight that causes sneezing, runny noses and itchy eyes.
Seasonal allergic rhinitis, as it's more properly known, affects up to 18m people in the UK and each year its prevalence increases, with suggested reasons for the rise including increased air pollution and climate change. So with more of us succumbing to pollen's unwelcome advances, can anything be done to combat this growing menace?
The Causes of Hay Fever
The condition is caused by an allergic reaction to pollen, where the body responds to the allergen as if it was being attacked by a virus. The vast majority of sufferers in the UK (90%) are allergic to Timothy grass and rye grass pollen (prevalent between mid-May and July). One in four are allergic to tree pollen (which strikes from late March to mid-May), while less common still is an allergy to weed pollen (at its height between the end of June and September).
Sufferers of asthma and eczema are more likely to get hay fever and pollen levels tend to peak between 5-10am and late evening, so either lock yourself in at home or hope for rain.
Hay Fever Remedies and Myths
There is no cure for hay fever; your best bet is to avoid pollen entirely, which is nigh on impossible. Wraparound sunglasses and a touch of Vaseline on your nostrils can reduce the amount of pollen you come into contact with.
Antihistamines help manage hay fever by blocking the effect of histamine, which the body releases in response to allergens, causing the irritating symptoms. Alcohol contains histamine and can aggravate hay fever symptoms, so reducing your booze intake might help. Other weapons in the war on pollen include nasal sprays to unclog blocked noses and eye drops to reduce itchiness.
One thing that probably won't help is local honey, as there's no proof to back up this commonly trotted-out cure. Honey likely doesn't contain enough pollen to “desensitise” someone, and anyway, bees collect pollen from flowers, rather than the grass, trees and weeds that cause hay fever.
The Britain Breathing App
Scientists are yet to discover exactly why hay fever is increasing, so the Royal Society of Biology, the British Society for Immunology and the University of Manchester have combined to create an app to help unravel the mystery.
The Britain Breathing app asks users to record their symptoms each day, so the team can use the data to see what affects the allergies. So if hay fever is driving you mad, join the fight against it by logging your data. Available on Google Play, britainbreathing.org
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