Return of allergy season

Meridian, Miss. - Spring has officially sprung, and now is the start of allergy season. As trees grow and plants bloom, pollen is released into the air. A local allergist, Dr. Todd Adkins, at the Mississippi Asthma and Allergy Clinic suggest that allergens can be worse in the south, than other environmental areas.

“Mississippi is difficult because pollen grows well here. Mississippi is a state where things grow great and we’re always rated at the top in terms of the exposure of pollen and other allergens, so it’s a really difficult place just because pollen is so heavy, and it certainly is this year,” said Adkins.

Dr. Adkins also advise knowing the common allergy symptoms, which generally include

'nasal congestion or sneezing or nasal and ocular itching, very common allergy symptoms.'

Adkins urges that once allergy symptoms have been identified to consider self-help treatments such as ‘over-the-counter nasal sprays and antihistamines to start, but for those experiencing more severe symptoms to consider these options as a source of relief. Adkins advise of three additional treatment options:

“The first thing, we try to help people avoid what they’re allergic to, we can do that by doing some basic allergy testing. The second thing we can do is use a variety of different medications that help people. And then we have other kinds of treatments like allergy shots for the person who a lot of difficulties every year where their quality of life is really bad due to their allergies, some of those patients can get tired of going through that every year and what we do is desensitize them by turning off that allergy so that even if the pollen is bad they really don’t have much of a problem.”