Spring has emerged after extended rains in the bay area. If you are mocking and sibilando, it is in the company of a quarter of all adults and 20% of children in the United States suffering from seasonal allergies, according to the estimates of the centers for disease control and prevention.
Hoating fever, or allergic rhinitis, brings eyes with itching, liquid noses, edges, smell difficulties, throat pain and skin irritation. The most severe allergic asthma can bring oppression in the chest, wheezing, lack of breath, cough and anaphylaxis of the constriction of the respiratory tract and even death. Asthma affects 2.6 million people in California, more than in any other state.
For such a common affliction, doctors have reliable data on what to expect in any given allergy season, which generally occurs when pollen levels reach their maximum point in spring. Some experts are trying to change that.
P: Who has pollen? And how?
TO: The short answer is that it is not an authorized source. The forecasts of popular allergies on Pollen.com, Accuweather and Drug Corporation Apps are derived from unleashed data. The Oceanic and Atmospheric National Administration began a tracker of experimental allergens, but the National Meteorological Service, administered by the Agency, is not involved.
“It is beyond its main reach to save lives and properties,” said meteorologist Jan Null, a student of the weather service.
The National Allergies Office is the only entity in the US that certifies and standardizes the pollen count, carried out in a basic volunteer by allergists and acrobiologists.
Dr. Theodore Chu, based in San José, is one of the approximately 70 pollen counters certified by the allergies office in the country and three in the Bay area.
The winds by hand of the Swiss watch machine of a spore trap called Burkard in its backyard every week. The device extracts air from a radius of 500 feet in its “admission hole” and deposits its content on a slide, which Chu examines under a microscope.
Scanning for any of the 35,000 types of mill spores and 10 to 20 pollen, referring to line drawings of their collections. Pine Pollen still looks like Mickey Mouse; Acacia grains still appear as volleyballs.
The automated colen are supposed to minimize human error and offer real -time statistics. But Dr. Jennifer Camacho, a clinic and assistant professor who directs the Allergenic Immunotherapy program in Stanford and learned Chu’s forms, said humans are still more precise.
Working towards certification and a counting center in your institution, Camacho wants to study the impact of high temperatures and carbon dioxide levels in everything in addition, and if the pollens are becoming more.
P: Is there any indication that this is the season of allergy to sausages in the Bay area?
TO: No, says Alan Repet, senior meteorologist and pollen forecast in Accuweather. The perceptions of the astronomical worship allergy stations are due to the rebound of the pollen levels lower than the tendenerals after the last prolonged drought in California.
P: How do allergy conditions accumulate in the bay area against other places throughout the country?
TO: The Foundation of Allergy and Astma of America issued its report of capital of 2025 allergies in the classification of the “cities of allergy” of sausages and said that San José and San Francisco worsened dramatically from 2023 to 2024. But the allergies office is challenging the basis of the report.
These discussions, which report the decisions of some of the 80 million American allergy people and a multimillion -dollar global therapy market, reinforce the question of who is counting.
P: The allergies did not seem this wide spread decades ago. What else could be happening?
TO: One possibility, said Chu, is the hygiene hypothesis: cleaner humans get, more allergic become, since their immune systems are not worried fighting against other germs. “It is a case of error identity: your body is looking for something to attack,” he said.
P: So should I roll in a little pollen, dust and animal dandruff?
TO: This is not how Chu said, laughing. It must have gradually acclimatized to the childhood of the polenses and early childhood.
P: If you don’t have to return, what can I do with the allergies I am caught now?
TO: The first level of defense is to avoid: maintain a clean house, display and wash clothes after being outside, establish air purifiers and humidifiers and perhaps even remain inside. “But we can’t live in a bubble,” Camacho said.
P: The next in row is the plethora or the available allergies. What better work?
TO: Chu, whose work helped develop the Allegra Home brand, said Antihistamines, with a global market value of $ 280 million that is expected to increase to $ 381 million by 2030, all histamine block receptors, the synthesis of chemistry that signs cells released byticaling.
Which choosing depends on which active ingredient works best for an individual and with the least amount of side effects. Taking pills before symptoms begin and change brand can also help.
Nasal aerosols contain antihistamines or steroids to reduce inflammation.
A limited selection of free sales inhalers relax the muscles to address minor asthmatic symptoms.
P: Is there a treatment that addresses the root cause of allergies?
TO: The allergy shots that contain solutions or grains of raw pollen, the dust of the house and the dandruff of animals address the root cause by inciting the immune systems of the people to create antibodies that neutralize common is something like they enter the body.
P: Is there any inconvenience in the shots?
TO: The shots require a time commitment without guaranteed results.
Camacho recommends a complete blood or puncture test for the skin so that patients with severe allergy begin the conversation with a doctor about a more proactive treatment.
Some patients do not respond to the shots, so the search for the data and information required to develop better treatments continues.
The need for research is growing as more scientists connect climate change with the growing probability of experiencing more intense and prolonged allergy symptoms.
“There are many more questions than answers,” said Camacho. “One way to understand our environment is to understand what is in the air.”
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