A spring complicated for people suffering from allergies.

Madrid, February 2013.- After two relatively benign years for people suffering from allergies, experts predict a worsening of the symptoms of allergies caused by plants for this spring. Will this winter rains, and especially the snowfalls of recent weeks, which ensures the presence of moisture in the soil for the next few months, bring a more intense bloom of bananas by shadow, grass and olive trees, and with it a much more intense symptoms for patients.

This is a reality among those allergic to the pollen of the Cupressaceae, the family of plants that blooms in winter and whose best-known representatives are the cypresses and the arizonica, which have already noticed the consequences of this major bloom in cities such as Madrid, such as Dr. Javier single, the light clinic allergist.

In fact between late January and early this month was recorded in Madrid a concentration of 1,150 cupresacea pollen grains per cubic meter, which has caused already an increase in queries by allergy to this type of pollen. The arizonica has already had a peak quite high, much higher than in previous years, and is expected again to the Sun in the next few weeks another rebound, which in late February or early March probably allergic to the arizonica will return to exacerbated symptoms ”said one doctor.

When the rest of the pollen, weather forecasts suggest, according to experts, that symptoms will remain present in the allergic population in the following weeks, and especially since the end of March, when flowering banana’s shade, and in May the hand of olive trees and grasses. These factors will be added, in urban areas, the pollution by diesel, which multiplies the allergic effects of the pollen.

at the end of March – says the doctor alone will reach the banana’s shade, especially in cities like Madrid, where is a very common tree. Then, in mid-May, will appear the grasses and the olive tree, which also constitute a health problem for big cities taking into account that pollens are transported long distances by wind ”.

As regards the type of patient who attends the allergy consultation first, usually it’s a relatively young person who takes a couple of years with mild symptoms and in the third year starts to suffer symptoms of a more intense way, so that due to them not you can develop correctly your work, their studies or take advantage of your leisure outdoors.

Also, if it is true that there are people who may be confused in the first instance an allergy with a cold, especially in winter, there are symptoms that do not lie. The itchy eye and throat are very characteristic ”, said for his part Dr. Vanesa Sánchez, the unit of light allergy specialist.

Next-generation treatments

Allergy is generally diagnosed via skin tests and also analyzing the coincidence between the symptoms and the dates of flowering of a certain plant. But the great advantage that allergic people have today is that the specialists have a full battery of last generation antihistamines drugs that greatly reduce the symptoms of the disease. treatments have improved greatly in recent years and get a very effective control of symptoms ”says the doctor alone.

On the other hand should take into account that if use treatments that change the natural course of allergic disease such as immunotherapy, are based on an accurate diagnosis, pathology can be definitively overcome.

What is evident, however, is that in this field it is important to act as soon as possible. Early of a patient who has not developed severe symptoms still study and assessment is essential to prevent the disease continue to evolve and ends up causing asthma ”, adds Dr. Sánchez.

In terms of prevention, it should not be forgotten that change of a place of residence to another with more vegetation or maintain contact often with haired animals as cats may be at the origin of new cases of allergy. It is also important that a patient who note symptoms in times of greatest pollination avoid exercising outdoors and opt for interior spaces for physical activity.

The work of the family doctor

On the other hand, is often the family doctor or pediatrician who first detects that there may be a problem of allergy in a patient, something that is already happening at this point in the year. María Dolores Rodríguez, responsible of the family medicine unit of the light, Dr. explains that in the last month are coming many patients with rhinitis, sneezing, and itchy eyes due to hypersensitivity to pollen from the arizonica.

“Some think that it is a cold and carry several days taking acetaminophen without noticing an improvement and, of course, as soon as we recetamos them antihistamines respond immediately to the treatment” explains.

Dr. Rodriguez notes that when symptomatology is slight and antihistamines the patient can follow the treatment in the family medicine unit, especially if it’s people of a certain age. However, when the allergy is more severe and persistent, and especially if it just interfering in daily life, the patient him derives to the allergy unit.

The light clinic

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