It’s that time of year again and you may be sneezing and grabbing lots of tissues. It’s allergy season.
All this may look like snow during springtime.
But it is causing some people to sneeze like one visitor from Texas at Elizabeth Park in Hartford.
“It’s like what is this in the air and it’s very polleny,” Cindy Vega, who is visiting from Texas said.
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“When I come here, we got allergies, and we got a heat wave. Like oh my gosh, I thought I was getting away from that,” Vega said.
It’s indeed allergy season. Flowers and trees are putting pollen in the air causing sneezing fits.
“Get a lot of tissues. A lot of tissue boxes been used this year than before,” said Suzette Alexander, of Hartford.
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Dr. Peter Manes, Associate Professor of Surgery (Otolaryngology), says Connecticut has the climate for allergens.
“We get affected by pollens, tree pollens, grass pollens, weed pollens. And you'll see that kind of no matter where you are in the state,” he said.
He says this year compared to recent years has been no different in terms of patients coming in. However, he says climate change has helped allergy season expand during the year with more irritants in the air.
“If you remember last year, when the wildfires from Canada came through and we were all bathed in multiple irritants,” Dr. Manes said.
He suggests patients get proactive before their nose starts running with medication.
“If they're not using allergy medicines, start them about two weeks before allergy season would typically start just to try and get ahead of it,” Dr. Manes said.
It is advice people are taking.
“Take your allergy medicine. Don’t forget to take your allergy medicine before you get out,” Alexander said.
