Allergies, asthma, and pollen

Reactive airway - pollen; Bronchial asthma - pollen; Triggers - pollen; Allergic rhinitis - pollen

Description

In people who have sensitive airways, allergy and asthma symptoms can be triggered by breathing in substances called allergens, or triggers. It is important to know your triggers because avoiding them is your first step toward feeling better. Pollen is a common trigger.

Pollens

Pollen is a trigger for many people who have allergies and asthma. The types of pollens that are triggers vary from person to person and from region to region. Plants that may trigger hay fever (allergic rhinitis) and asthma include:

  • Some trees
  • Some grasses
  • Weeds
  • Ragweed

Watch the Weather and the Season

The amount of pollen in the air can affect whether you or your child has hay fever and asthma symptoms.

  • On hot, dry, windy days, more pollen is in the air.
  • On cool, rainy days, most pollen is washed to the ground.

Different plants produce pollen at different times of the year.

  • Most trees produce pollen in the spring.
  • Grasses usually produce pollen during the late spring and summer.
  • Ragweed and other late-blooming plants produce pollen during late summer and early fall.

When Pollen Levels are High

The weather report on TV or on the radio often has pollen count information. Or, you can look it up online. When pollen levels are high:

  • Stay indoors and keep doors and windows closed. Use an air conditioner if you have one.
  • Save outside activities for late afternoon or after a heavy rain. Avoid the outdoors between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m.
  • Do not dry clothes outdoors. Pollen will stick to them.
  • Have someone who does not have asthma cut the grass. Or, wear a face mask if you must do it.

Keep grass cut short or replace your grass with a ground cover. Choose a ground cover that does not produce much pollen, such as Irish moss, bunch grass, or dichondra.

If you buy trees for your yard, look for tree types that will not make your allergies worse, such as:

  • Crape myrtle, dogwood, fig, fir, palm, pear, plum, redbud, and redwood trees
  • Female cultivars of ash, box elder, cottonwood, maple, palm, poplar or willow trees

References

American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology website. Home allergy management. acaai.org/resource/home-allergy-management/. Updated June 28, 2023. Accessed April 12, 2024.

Corren J, Baroody FM, Togias A. Allergic and nonallergic rhinitis. In: Burks AW, Holgate ST, O'Hehir RE, et al, eds. Middleton's Allergy: Principles and Practice. 9th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2020:chap 40.

GO

Review Date: 4/1/2024

Reviewed By: Charles I. Schwartz, MD, FAAP, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, General Pediatrician at PennCare for Kids, Phoenixville, PA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability, timeliness, or correctness of any translations made by a third-party service of the information provided herein into any other language.

© 1997- A.D.A.M., a business unit of Ebix, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.


All content on this site including text, images, graphics, audio, video, data, metadata, and compilations is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may view the content for personal, noncommercial use. Any other use requires prior written consent from Ebix. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, display, publish, reverse-engineer, adapt, modify, store beyond ordinary browser caching, index, mine, scrape, or create derivative works from this content. You may not use automated tools to access or extract content, including to create embeddings, vectors, datasets, or indexes for retrieval systems. Use of any content for training, fine-tuning, calibrating, testing, evaluating, or improving AI systems of any kind is prohibited without express written consent. This includes large language models, machine learning models, neural networks, generative systems, retrieval-augmented systems, and any software that ingests content to produce outputs. Any unauthorized use of the content including AI-related use is a violation of our rights and may result in legal action, damages, and statutory penalties to the fullest extent permitted by law. Ebix reserves the right to enforce its rights through legal, technological, and contractual measures.


BACK
TO
TOP