Hayfever - the season to be sneezin

Thursday 3rd December 2009 9:02am

‘Tis the Season to be Sneezin’

Spring is a great time of the year. The days start to get warmer and longer which makes you want to get out and about. Your exercise regimen gets dusted off along with your training shoes and you re-commit to making the effort to improve your health.

It’s amazing how coming out of the dark, short winter days makes you feel so much better. It’s a shame that for many people this also is the start of one of the worst periods of the year. Hay fever season can last from early spring right through to mid-summer and if you are a sufferer it can really be quite debilitating.

For most seasonal allergy sufferers there are some simple things we can do to avoid the worst of the problems associated with hay fever.

Avoiding things that cause you discomfort might sound easy but it takes some time and careful observation to try and establish what it is that makes you sneeze. Make a note of when and where you suffer the most and try and locate what it is that sets you off. For example if you work outside and find that you wake up stuffy every morning it might be that the pollens and dust that accumulate on your hair during the day are deposited onto your pillow while you are asleep. They are then right next to your face as you turn over in the night so it’s no wonder that you wake up feeling the worse for wear.

Showering before bed or even just running a damp cloth over your hair before bed will remove most of the contaminants so that you won’t be inhaling them while you are asleep.

When avoidance of triggers is not giving desired results there are a range of treatments that can be of help.

Antihistamine tablets are effective for many people but not everyone likes taking them. Some have drowsy side effects while others can’t be given safely to children, nursing mothers or during pregnancy. For most people though these are an excellent resource on those really bad days.

For daily use throughout the season though many people like to use a herbal preparation to keep symptoms at an acceptable level.

Horseradish, garlic and fenugreek are good herbs to look for as they help improve the immune system and limit the amount of secretions that are produced by the nasal mucosa. Coupled with vitamin C these ingredients are often all that is needed to make the sneezing’ season a breeze.

Hay fever or a common cold?

Whilst common colds occur more frequently in winter they can occur all year round. Here are a few tips to help you distinguish between the two.

	Hay fever	Common Cold
Symptoms	Runny nose, thin clear discharge. No temperature	Runny nose often with discoloured discharge. Slight temperature
Onset	Immediately after exposure to allergy trigger	A couple of days after exposure to someone with the virus
Duration	One to two hours after exposure is terminated	Up to a week depending on strength of your immune system