Hay fever sufferers: Grab the tissues and start taking your allergy medicine. You're in for a long, brutal season of sneezing, congestion, scratchy throat and irritated eyes, allergy specialists say.
The season started this week, a little earlier than usual. It promises to be intense, with ideal conditions for proliferation of ragweed, the cause of hay fever at this time of year, experts say. New Jersey and surrounding areas have had heavy rains, followed by very hot, dry weather and now the cool nights that prepare the weeds to release their built-up pollen grains.
"It will be a longer season and you will have more pollen than in previous years," said Dr. Leonard Bielory, director of the Asthma and Allergy Research Center at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark. "The crop is very robust."
He said the ragweed season likely will peak in the next three weeks and will be "a heck of a lot more intense" than normal, then will continue until the first frost.
Dr. Tom Selvaggi, a Hackensack allergy specialist, also expects "pretty prolific" ragweed pollen until around Labor Day _ coming after one of the worst spring allergy seasons in the last decade.
"Patients who know they have ragweed allergies should start their medications now," he said. "They shouldn't wait till the last minute."
Some allergy medicines take a few days to be fully effective, so delaying the start of medication makes it more difficult to get symptoms under control and can sometimes lead to sinus infections, even asthma attacks.
Doctors advise allergy sufferers to take measures that will limit their exposure to pollen, such as keeping windows closed and using air conditioning.
Late last week, ragweed pollen counts were still low around the state, but doctors expect them to pick up significantly soon, particularly if there is little or no rain to cleanse the air. And some patients have been calling their allergists complaining of symptoms flaring up already.
"Even if the count remains low for a little bit, you're still going to be miserable," said Dr. Maria Lania-Howarth, head of the division of allergy and immunology at Cooper University Hospital in Camden.
She said people allergic to ragweed don't need much to set them off. The initial pollen grains "prime" the body's immune system, which revs up to fight off the perceived invaders and in essence backfires, spewing antibodies and histamines into the blood and causing discomfort.
The culprit is a hardy and widespread plant often found beside roadways and farm fields. Ragweed plants, which are topped by spikes of greenish-yellow flowers, can range in height from a few inches to more than 12 feet. That size helps them compete with other plants for soil nutrients and sunlight.
Bielory said ragweed plants seem to be producing more pollen than they used to, and the pollen's irritating effects on eyes are being exacerbated by air pollution.
"It appears that global warning is part of why these plants are producing more pollen," said Bielory, who is seeking research funding to evaluate the interaction of pollution and allergens in the eye.
Bielory advises allergy patients who wear contact lenses to wear them less or use one-day disposable contacts to avoid buildup of pollen on the lenses, which can lead to chronic irritation and other eye problems.
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On the Net:
UMDNJ allergy center site: http://pollen.umdnj.edu
