While for some, spring means the return of warmer days, for others it's torture. Around a fifth of the Swiss population can't fully enjoy the nice weather because they suffer from hay fever. Practical tips on how to get through the tiresome pollen season more easily can be found in this health tip.
Sneezing attacks, watery eyes and a runny nose: many allergy sufferers struggle with these symptoms as soon as the first days of spring arrive. It feels like the pollen season starts earlier every year. Flowers are blooming earlier because climate change means temperatures at the end of winter are milder.
What is hay fever?
Hay fever is an allergic form of the common cold. It is triggered by a sensitivity to environmental substances such as pollen or other allergens. If these allergens come into contact with our external or internal mucous membranes, they can trigger an allergic reaction. This depends on the allergen, its concentration, the person's current sensitivity to the specific allergen and their genetic make-up, as a predisposition to hay fever is often hereditary.
These symptoms can occur with hay fever
Hay fever can cause one or more of these symptoms:
- Runny nose
- Blocked nose
- Sneezing attacks
- Difficulty breathing through your nose
- Red and itchy eyes (conjunctivitis)
- Tickly throat
- Swollen mucous membranes
- A tickly cough
- Fatigue
- Shortness of breath (in asthma patients)
How do I find out what I am allergic to?
Anyone who suffers from hay fever should consider getting an allergy diagnosis so that the exact allergen can be identified as accurately as possible. This is particularly useful if you want to start desensitisation therapy. If hay fever remains untreated, a type of "allergic progression" can occur where the allergy travels from the upper to the lower airways. This can lead to asthma.
How can you treat hay fever?
There are various medical and non-medical treatments for hay fever:
Medication
- Antihistamines: These are active ingredients that inhibit the effects of histamine, the substance that causes allergic reactions. Antihistamines have anti-allergic, anti-pruritic and anti-inflammatory properties. But they can also cause drowsiness, which is why they shouldn't be taken in tablet form before work or driving. It's better to take them in the evening or before going to bed. This type of medication is available in various forms: tablets, (eye)drops and nasal sprays.
- Cortisone: Cortisone is mainly administered as a nasal spray for hay fever. It has a local anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory effect. Unlike antihistamines, cortisone is not fast-acting, which is why it needs to be used over a longer time.
- Herbal medicines: Black cumin oil and butterbur are among plants that have an anti-allergic effect.
Non-medical treatment
- Regularly clean out your nose with a saline solution to flush out allergens from your nose and help you breathe better.
- Wash or rinse your hair before going to bed. This prevents pollen from getting onto your pillow and irritating your nose at night. You should also wash your bed linen regularly.
- Don't take the clothes you wore in the day into the bedroom, take them off before you go in.
- Hang your laundry up to dry indoors rather than outdoors so that no (or at least less) pollen gets caught in the fabric.
- Wipe surfaces in living areas, especially the dining table, with a damp cloth before eating.
- Air your home thoroughly, but only for a short time. If it has rained and the pollen has been "washed" out of the air, you can keep the doors and windows open for longer.
- If you have a lawn, you should mow it often (or get a robot mower).
- On warm spring days and in summer, sufferers shouldn’t use a fan to cool the room, as this will spread the pollen around.
- Sunglasses help keep pollen out of your eyes in windy weather.
- Use a vacuum cleaner with a pollen filter.
- Spend the pollen season in regions where the plants that bother you don’t grow or where they flower earlier or later.
