(WKBN) — Have you heard somebody sneeze this week? How about today? How about in the last five minutes? It’s been a crazy allergy season, and the reason behind it is exactly what you think.
The sound of the season is a sneeze, and people are sneezing everywhere. Many are running to allergists like Dr. Asif Khan with the Asthma & Allergy Center.
“This season has been a little bit worse than last season,” Khan said. “One of the reasons why is because we didn’t have a winter.”
Trees started blooming early, pollination started and now the grass is creeping up. Grass and tree allergies are overlapping right now which is why so many people are feeling symptoms.
If you’re getting sick all the time, sneezing and have lots of phlegm, Dr. Khan suggests seeing an allergist. He says over-the-counter medicines can help most people and if one doesn’t work, try another.
“But when they all stopped working, for example, Zyrtec, Claritin, Allegra, that’s probably that one time we’re going to have to go see a doctor because nothing just working anymore,” Khan said.
An allergist can help you determine if allergy shots could help.
One more thing, but it won’t be any relief as you sneeze and suffer. A study done in Columbus found out allergy seasons are lasting longer. The average had been just an extra five or ten days.
“But now it’s about 30 days extra, so we almost have nine, nine-and-a-half months worth of allergy season in this area which is unheard of,” Khan said.
If you have all three allergies, tree, grass and weeds — allergy season could last until Thanksgiving or December.
