What do you know about pollen? That it makes you sneeze? There is so much more about pollen that you might not know and some that you will but all of it will help you combat it.

Pollen is one of the most common allergens in the US. So common that 81% of 67 million suffer specifically from pollen. But did you know there are two kinds of pollen?

Pollen isn’t just simply pollen. There are two kinds. Before it was agitating people all over it was fertilizing plants. It is why we have beautiful blooms. How does it do this; two ways. Lightweight pollen like trees, grasses and weeds are airborne by the wind. The second is heavy pollen which is only transported by insects; to plants like flowers. The lightweight pollen is the one we are all allergic to. There is a myth that plants like goldenrod and sunflower have the lightweight pollen but this is false. What is the point of all this if we don’t know what it does to us?

Well luckily we do. Because pollen is transferred by the wind it normally enters the body via the nose and the throat. When trees, grasses and weeds create pollen it often causes hay fever and then will irritate your sinus passages, eyes and skin resulting in rhinitis. It will often aggravate asthma symptoms as well. The pollen allergy symptoms will include sneezing, nasal congestion, runny nose, watery eyes, itchy throat and eyes and wheezing. So what can you do about it?

You can take medication of coarse and probably should but first and foremost what you should do is find out which pollen you are allergic to. When you find that out you will then know the season in which your allergies are worst. Different pollen is released at different times throughout the year. The best defense is a good offense. So get tested and then head on over to Pollen.com to see what pollen is the worst in your area and to set up a plan to battle it. Get alerts when pollen counts are high and when you need to spend most times inside. If you have to be outside during high pollen times take your medication and then immediately shower and wash your clothes to remove the pollen from your skin. Depending on the time of year whether you are using your heater or your air condition make sure you are changing your air filter out regularly to remove any from your environment, try these.

The best is to plan and prepare instead of fighting while it is happening to you. For the information from this blog check out pollen.com and these 2 sites.