It’s not even spring yet but two days of warm weather have seen hay fever sufferers in misery as tree pollen runs wild. It feels like the season starts earlier and hits harder every year. But can this be true?
Rebecca Seal, journalist and author of Irritated: The Allergy Epidemic and What We Can Do About It, explains that more people are developing allergies such as hay fever now than ever before. "In the early-mid 1800s the first researchers to look into hay fever found it very hard to find subjects to study because hay fever was so rare, whereas nowadays up to a quarter of adults have seasonal allergies and numbers are rising."
What’s causing more severe symptoms for hay fever sufferers?
While more people are developing hay fever, it also seems that symptoms are worsening. But what is causing this: higher pollen counts in the air or the body’s histamine response? Rebecca tells me that one reason hay fever symptoms are primarily made more severe is by the pollen in the air: "The more pollen there is, the more intense the symptoms. One reason that hay fever rates are going up is that the amount of pollen in the air is increasing too."
Rebecca also notes how, strangely, it is more of an issue seen in cities. "This is partly because we have unwittingly filled urban areas with highly allergenic plants, like birch trees, of which many are male trees chosen because they don't drop as much onto city streets," says Rebecca. "Male birch trees are pollen super producers, though, so even if they make an area look nicer to live in, they can also cause a lot of harm."
Once you start to look, Rebecca says, you'll notice that urban planting often involves a lot of potentially allergenic grasses too. "Pollen can get trapped in hard landscaping and swirl around rather than being washed away, especially in dry weather. Pollution can make the problem worse still, because polluting chemicals interact with pollen to break it into smaller pieces, meaning it can travel deeper into our lungs. There is even some evidence to show that pollen from grasses growing near polluted roads contains more pollen allergens than grasses growing in cleaner areas."
For some people other conditions can worsen hay fever symptoms or even resemble them. Around 80% of people with asthma also have hay fever, meaning pollen can trigger asthma attacks, while an already inflamed respiratory system can make hay fever symptoms feel more intense and harder to manage.
Rebecca tells me that it can be tricky to tell hay fever apart from other environmental allergies, such as dust mite allergy, sensitivities to certain kinds of mould or even airborne chemicals like room fragrances. Lots of people with hay fever have or later develop other allergies too, meaning it can be hard to tell what's causing what.
"A condition called histamine intolerance, which isn't very well researched or understood but essentially means you struggle to process the histamine you produce or consume, can mean you get hay fever like symptoms after eating foods rich in histamine (like aged cheeses or fermented foods), and some people think histamine intolerance makes their existing hay fever worse too," she adds.
Hormones such as oestrogen can also influence how the body responds to histamine. As a result some women may first experience hay fever during pregnancy, notice it emerging in perimenopause or menopause, or find that their hay fever – and other allergy symptoms – flare up at certain points in their menstrual cycle.
The impact of climate change on hay fever season
Hay fever season is lasting longer and increasingly unpredictable weather means pollen spikes are arriving much earlier in the year than they used to.
"Climate change means plants produce pollen at times of year when people with hay fever would have thought they might be safer and in some years it can also mean that plants produce more flowers, and that different plant seasons overlap meaning people who are sensitive to a few types of pollen don't get a break from symptoms," Rebecca says.
"CO2 levels also play a role because carbon dioxide in the air influences how much plants flower and fruit: more flowers mean more pollen and more fruits and seeds, which in turn mean more plants the next year, especially weeds," she continues. "Hay fever symptoms are triggered when levels hit 50-100 grains per cubic metre but last March the city of Atlanta set a new record for the highest pollen count ever recorded: over 14,000 pollen grains per cubic metre, which left the city coated in yellow dust and was extremely dangerous for anyone with hay fever."
Is your garden part of the equation?
Oliver Parsons, strategic projects editor at Gardeners' World, assures me that, generally with pollen, it's not the plants in your garden you need to worry about. "It's more to do with the plants in the wider area. Most garden plants are insect-pollinated so their pollen will not be flying around in a problematic way," he says. "Insect-pollinated plants produce relatively little pollen (instead they invest their energies in nectar and lovely big flowers) but wind-pollinated plants produce tons of it."
When it comes to wind-borne pollen a few of the big hitters are alders, oaks, hazel, lime and London plane. "Grasses are awful for it but won't be releasing pollen for a little while – until mid-May – as they are only just starting up again after the slow-to-no growth period of winter," Oliver says.
"Wind-borne pollen can travel for miles but mostly it will travel within around 100 metres. So if you back onto a park with lots of those trees you may experience it worse, for example. Pollen will tend to be higher in the morning and evening, when it cools and drifts to the ground."
What you should do
There are very real changes happening for allergy sufferers. Hay fever rates are rising in part because pollen levels are increasing while, at the same time, the season is stretching out and more unpredictable weather patterns mean pollen peaks are happening earlier in the year than they once did. If you suffer from hay fever try these foods to support your seasonal allergies, recommended by our health editor, as well as the top 10 natural hay fever remedies to ease your allergy symptoms. Speak to your GP or pharmacist about medication.
We have our comprehensive guide to Quercetin: potential benefits, uses and side effects, plus our health guide explaining all you need to know about seasonal allergies.
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source https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/health/hay-fever-hitting-harder
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