Something to Sneeze At: Pollen 'More Aggressive' in Greater Washington Area

Nothing says spring like a runny nose, itchy eyes, coughing and wheezing — not to mention that new greenish-yellow paint job on every car in the lot. Seasonal allergies have arrived in Northern Virginia.

In the greater Washington region, maple, cedar/juniper, birch, alder and ash trees are in bloom and contributing most of the pollen that's flying around, according to Pollen.com.

The best ways to battle seasonal allergies are to avoid pollen and mold, take allergy medicine and, if that doesn’t work, opt for allergy shots, said Dr. Talal Nsouli, a Georgetown University School of Medicine allergy and immunology professor. Nsouli was the personal allergist to President Bill Clinton and has served as an allergy consultant for the White House under George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Mild winters are partially to blame the uptick in the number of people suffering from seasonal allergies, Nsouli said. “The pollen is more aggressive due to the changes in the atmosphere,” he said.

Steve Kenney has lived in Northern Virginia all his life, and the Vienna resident said he’s been fighting allergies for as long as he can remember. Over the past few years, they’ve gotten worse.

Kenney said his two sons were miserable before starting allergy shots. “We had them tested and we decided it would be best for them to take the shots,” he said.

'This Area is The Worst'

Though the pollen count in the Washington metro area has dropped 8 percent since this time last year, Pollen.com spokesman Bob Linton said the region still has a lot of pollen in the air. The pollen count along all of the Mid-Atlantic states is higher during different times of the season, but it also depends on the timing certain species of plants and trees bloom, he said.

In the course of a day, Dr. Manish Khanna sees approximately 30 patients. Of those, up to half of them are in Khanna’s Inova Mount Vernon Hospital office because of seasonal allergies. With stints in Albany, N.Y., and Palo Alto, Calif., before arriving in Northern Virginia in 2008, Khanna, an ear, nose and throat doctor, said over-the-counter drugs can help but allergy shots seem to work best.

“I think this area is the worst,” Khanna said. “There seems to be a vigorous shift in the climate here.”

Patricia Hall has battled seasonal allergies all her life — first in Florida and now in Centreville in Northern Virginia.

She's done it all — watching pollen reports, hanging her coat in the closet and leaving her laptop bag away from common areas at home — yet she still deals with the sneezing, coughing and wheezing. In 1998, Hall dealt with her worse bout of seasonal allergies and decided to take shots for a year.

Now the mother of a kindergartener, Hall has watched her son deal with similar issues — to the point where she and her husband had to cut back on the amount of time their child spends outside to make sure he didn’t miss any school.

“Last year when my son was in preschool, he missed a lot of time,” Hall said. “This year has been better.”

Fighting Allergies to Prevent Future Problems

For more than 20 years, Nsouli has treated thousands for seasonal allergies and conducted more than 100 case studies. One of the most common allergies he has seen is hay fever. In a 2011 case study, Nsouli found that hay fever could lead to chronic fatigue. Chemicals could be released into the blood causing fatigue and different moods, he said.

“If you don’t treat hay fever, it can progress into asthma,” Nsouli said. “Asthma can be a very difficult disease to deal with.”

Because seasonal allergies can morph into a variety of other health issues, Nsouli said it is best to see an allergist to develop a plan of action to combat them. In a separate case study Nsouli conducted, he found that 80 percent of the people in the study developed asthma from allergies.

“See an allergist if you have problems,” Nsouli said. “It will increase your quality if life.”

More:

Allergy Relief Tips from Dr. Oz (Huffington Post)

To track the pollen count in your area, click here.