The Oct 12 Los Angeles Times article by Karen Ravn did give an excellent description of why California is “blessed” with so much pollen. She writes: you’ll wind up with a runny or blocked-up nose, red, watery, itchy eyes, and no end of misery. But, I protest, how about some simple pointers on how to escape the runny nose? As long as your are describing the problem, why not give some solutions? For example: Breakfast in Bed.

With allergy, your normal thermostat is “off.” Instead of warming up from cold in the regular manner, you sneeze, cough, and hack: this does warm you up, but it starts a cascade that can last all day. When you awake from sleep, your body temperature is low or cool. If you drink hot tea, chicken soup, and some cereal, this warms up you body temperature and you avoid that bad morning cascade. Because of the bad thermostat, you should carry a jacket or windbreaker for going in and out of air conditioning. This can reduce symptoms. Avoid drinking iced drinks. Odors – perfume, lotions, and lipsticks – add to the allergy arithmetic. Without the lipstick your symptoms might be much less. Drive with your windows closed and air conditioning on. Must close bedroom windows at night; running a filter in the closed bedroom in the daytime filters out dust and pollen. Change outside clothing in order to avoid bringing pollen into the house.

You can easily diagnose what you are allergic to. Use the various web sites – Weather Channel, Ask.com, and others to see which weed is blooming when your symptoms are worse. Then you have a diagnosis. Sometimes it is sage growing only in your own back yard! Knowing when the pollen that you are allergic to is at its worse, you can go to the beach or to a higher mountain to avoid the pollen. You can also use that information to plan your vacation to make sure you are going where there is no pollen that you are allergic to.

This Times article mentions food allergy. Actually you may be able to eat, for example, fresh strawberries anytime, except during pollen season. The reason is that fresh produce is chemically more complex, and may produce a small amount of histamine. This can add to the big load of histamine produced by the pollen. To be on the safe side, stick to cooked or canned products.

The times article is correct that some 20 million persons are allergic to pollen. But, the tone of the article sounds like all are doomed to suffer. Actually, considering these numbers, there are only a percentage that don’t get relief with simple medication. The big secret is that your doctor has all kinds of samples and discount coupons for products that relieve allergy symptoms.

I feel that knowing how to relieve allergy symptoms early is important, in order to avoid complications such as sinus infection or asthma. For example I regularly see patients who, after weeks of allergy have now developed a sinus infection. This is because their nasal cilia are no longer moving bacteria out of the sinuses. It is simple to restore that good cilia action by irrigating with pulsed wave irrigation. For example, the Hydro Pulse Nasal/Sinus irrigator pulses at a rate to restore good nasal cilia movement.

I hope the Times author, Karen, will read this and my other allergy and sinus recommendations at www.grossan.com and www.grossaninstitute.com and tell their readers this advice. Reducing allergy symptoms early is important, in order to prevent complications such as chronic sinus disease.

Los Angeles Times Article: Read it here.