Allergy Season Myths Debunked

By Hanna Brooks Olsen for Blisstree.com

This year's relatively warm winter led to a mild flu season that was the latest in over two decades. Which was nice, because it meant fewer people were sick overall. But now, those same mild months may mean a perfect storm of sniffling and sneezing, because they could lead to an early onset of allergy season, creating an overlap between the two. Yup, that runny nose may not be due to a late-blooming flu, but rather, prematurely high pollen counts. It's time to brush up on your seasonal allergy knowledge to make sure you can separate myths from facts.

Just as flu myths and wive's tales prevail during the chilly months, when the first crocuses begin to bud, so, too, do the fallacies surrounding allergy season. Seemingly-sensible pieces of advice (like eating local honey) get passed between friends, old assumptions (like that flowers cause irritation) get repeated and, as a result, people suffer through watery eyes and sniffly noses, waiting for relief that probably won't come.

Flip through this gallery to see some of the most commonly-held allergy myths, and why they're simply not true. Good luck this season!

For more on allergies, click here.

Comments

[lensamy]

02:50 PM on 03/20/2012

Growing up i used to get allergies all the time, it was crazy my sister too, but for whatever reason they stopped however my sister still gets all kind of allergies all the time. Now she is taking D-hist and she swears by it.

[OverseasVet]

12:36 AM on 03/22/2012

D-Hist contains nettle leaf powder. Nettle leaves contain high levels of histamine (hense the "stinging" neddle moniker). Allergies are mediated by too much histamine release along with other vasoactive products. It doesn't take much to put the two together and wonder why someone would take histamine for a histamine problem. Wouldn't an anti-histamine make more sense? Suppliments are money makers and should never be considered medicine.

[VPerry24]

01:14 PM on 03/20/2012

We have a severe lack of Vitamin D. We even include SPF which is really damaging to get even less. Take 8000 units a day and no more allergies!

[JenniferWest]

01:24 PM on 03/20/2012

There is no good data on the effects of taking that much Vitamin D. People who die of Cancer and Heart Disease have low levels of vitamin D. But the jury is still out Vitamin D as a preventative therapy for any disease. I take extra D, But I would be very weary of taking that much of a fat soluble vitamin.

[OverseasVet]

01:38 AM on 03/22/2012

This is contrary to the peer reviewed scientific liturature which suggests levels over 4000 ius to be dangerous and once intakes surpass 2,000 milligrams per day for calcium, the risk for harm also increases. But that is from science experts at the Institute of Medicine. I'm sure the suppliment makers and hawkers like Mercola are much more trust worthy (insert big pharma strawman here)

[VPerry24]

05:22 AM on 03/22/2012

Vitamin D Council
March 21st, 2012

This newsletter is in part made possible by the support of our sponsors

Optimal levels of vitamin D during pregnancy
March 13, 2012 -- John Cannell, MD

More than 60 years ago, based on the science of the time (science that has stagnated for 60 years), Dr. E. Orbermer of Italy wrote the following:

“Until further experimental evidence, adequate and incontrovertible, is made available, I submit that we should play for safety. In a climate like that of England every pregnant woman should be given a supplement of vitamin D in doses of not less than 10,000 IU per day in the first 7 months, and 20,000 IU (per day) during the 8th and 9th months.”

[VA Jill]

01:13 PM on 03/19/2012

Actually, local honey does work, but Big Pharma wants you to believe it doesn't and you *need* to get shots. I had a lot of trouble with my allergies when I first moved to the rural area where I now live. Amazing how they quit after less than a week of taking a teaspoonful of locally produced honey every day.

[OverseasVet]

01:41 AM on 03/22/2012

Big pharma strawman and one person anecdotesis are not a very convincing argument. Allergies will change if location changes and it takes at least a week to clear the allergies from the old areas. Allergies also change by themselves without any intervention to become better or worse. So was it honey, a new location, or normal allergy change?

[VA Jill]

09:37 AM on 03/22/2012

Big Pharma is not a straw man. I spent my career in the medical field and I know how they push doctors to use their drugs, treat everything as a "disease" requiring drugs, and so forth. Seen it with my own eyes.

My partner, who has terrible allergies and has lived here for 20 years, finally started taking the local honey and his allergies cleared up too. You sound like a drug rep or a Big Pharma employee.

[rbspickles]

11:28 AM on 03/19/2012

You are totally wrong about the flower issue. Many times my friends and neighbors give me fresh cut flowers from their garden and in about 15 minutes of me being around them my eyes start watering, sneezing and runny nose. Also another great way to combat allergies is to spray saline solutions into your nose. It helps clean out the pollens and moisten the membranes affected.

[OverseasVet]

01:45 AM on 03/22/2012

Saline flushes and neti pots do work and are recommended by doctors. Flower allergies are usually a reaction to the fragrance instead of the pollen. Pollen allergies are due to tree and mold pollens not flowers.

[willuvote2012]

09:22 AM on 03/19/2012

Still pushing those deadly shots. Of course you sneeze,cough etc- pollen does not belong in your body. Those reactions by your body are your own ways of nature dealing with ridding your system of what does not belong there. Those drugs don't belong there either. They MAY cover the sympton but in long run -add toxins to your body. Use homeopathic natural methods for your symptoms if needed found in Vitamin Shoppe etc. Govt and pharm. love to pump you and your kids with crap. Panic the people story of the day!

[tazmodious]

10:51 AM on 03/19/2012

Yerba Santa for me works the best. I also found that if I don't drink alcohol and don't eat foods I have known allergies to, it lessons my allergies enough that I don't need meds.

[No death panels]

12:56 PM on 03/20/2012

There's nothing in homeopathic remedies.

[OverseasVet]

01:47 AM on 03/22/2012

What a silly thing to say. There are gold mines in homeopathic remedies and of course water.