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Entry bubble Ragweed Allergy Season – Achoo!

By: Joanne | August 19, 2008 | Category: Health

a mid adult man sneezing into tissue

It’s mid-August and my nose is running. Once again I face my nemesis…ragweed. Ambrosia trifida L., also known as great ragweed, is the species of ragweed that grows (abundantly) near me in Pennsylvania. It’s estimated that one ragweed plant can produce up to 1 billion pollen grains each wafting on the breeze directly towards my nose.

Apart from poison ivy, I’m lucky to be a person that doesn’t suffer from many allergies. But I’m allergic to ragweed, and every year my reaction seems a bit worse than the last. There are a few things you can do to minimize your suffering like stay indoors with the windows closed and the air conditioning on, but those types of solutions never appeal to me so I’ve been looking for other ways to manage my allergy symptoms.

Last year I was dependent on an over-the-counter allergy medication for the entire ragweed season. I didn’t like that. This year I’m trying nasal irrigation, which is simply a method of rinsing away the pollen in your sinuses. It feels like a strange thing to do, but I’ve found that it’s so effective that I’m now devoted to my neti pot. As ragweed season progresses we’ll see how my experiment goes. Yesterday I was working in the garden, clearing away big ragweed plants and I had to take some allergy medication, but I’m hoping that on normal days I’ll be able to do without.

If you have ragweed, there are a few things you can do to control the growth, but they say that the pollen can travel over 100 miles on the air, so it’s almost impossible for many of us to eliminate our exposure.

I’m really going to ask for one of those garden flame throwers for Christmas. I think it’s my only hope! Anyone have additional advice for allergy sufferers?

| View Comments [2] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: allergy   health   joanne   ragweed  

Comments (2):

blue comment bubble Posted by clutter_buster on August 19, 2008 at 01:34 PM EDT

I am also a big devotee to my neti pot. (is my grammar correct?) I can't live without it! My allergies are during the spring - pollen - blech! But using my neti pot twice a day has really helped! Some manufacturers of the neti pot say that you have to used distilled water and special salt, but tap water and regular salt work just fine.

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blue comment bubble Posted by theworldpoliticalboard on August 20, 2008 at 06:56 AM EDT

I also get affected to the cold most often and i don't know what is the reason for it. Actually i did not pay much attention to it and it get fine in 4-5 days.
But it is interesting to know that pollen travel 100 miles and we can't do anything to protect ourselves from getting exposed to it.

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