How to Combat Seasonal Allergies

As the sun finally pokes its way through the dark, winter clouds and temperatures start to heat up again, the pollen count in Oxford, Mississippi is going up, as well.

Allergic rhinitis, more commonly known as hay fever, affects 6.1 million children and 20 million adults, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

Tree pollen levels reached medium-high range of 7.3 to 12 (out of 12) an average of 24 days of the past month, according to Pollen.com. However, these numbers have spiked in comparison to past years, according to Dr. Gailen D. Marshall, Jr., Director of the Division of Clinical Immunology and Allergy at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

UPDATE: The freezing temperatures that Mississippi has experienced throughout the winter and even into April have pruned the trees to grow even more, according to Marshall. Combine that with the high amounts of rain has made the trees are exceptionally full of pollen this season.

“You’ve got a place for trees to grow like crazy this year, and the end result is the tree pollen season is much more severe throughout the state than it has been in recent years when we had much milder winters,” Marshall said.

Although seasonal allergies are sometimes referred to as hay fever, it’s important to note that a fever is usually a symptom of an actual sickness and not just allergies, according to Marshall.

“Hay fever is a misnomer because if you have a fever, it’s not because of allergies it’s because of a cold or other sickness,” Marshall said. “The other thing is that allergy symptoms tend to be limited to the head (nose, eyes, ears and back of their throat) whereas if you have a cold, you feel it throughout their body like in your joints and muscles.”

No matter what ailment you may be facing this spring, Marshall warns against overmedicating, especially when it comes to allergies because people often wait until they develop allergies and try to make up for that by taking many different kinds of medicine. Antihistamines, which are included in many allergy medications, are where the real problem lies.

“Antihistamines in the higher doses can be sedating and have an effect on blood pressure and even heart function.” Marshall said. “Exceeding that dose creates a huge problem.”

Some are turning to a natural remedy to combat these seasonal allergies: honey. Since the bees use the local flowers to make their honey, it is believed that this sticky substance contains traces of this pollen, which people can build up a tolerance against, according to Sam Mardis, beekeeper at Mardis Honey Farm in Tiplersville, Mississippi.

“There’s nothing concrete about the health benefits of honey, but I have plenty of stories about it helping people out,” Mardis said as he recounted the time he met a woman at a farmers market in Corinth, whose daughter was suffering from allergies.

“When she went to the doctor, he said to go buy some local honey,” Mardis said. “Now the girl is four and hasn’t gone back to the doctor since she started taking it.

After he bought his family farm back in 1994, Mardis said it was almost fate that he ended up working with bees.

“My brothers and I were walking around after the ice storm in March of ’94, and we saw this big tree that had been knocked over from the storm with bees swarming in and out of it,” Mardis said. “It got me wondering what that was all about, and then a few weeks later I saw a beginning bee-keeping course at Tractor Supply Company, and the rest was history, as they say.”

For more than 20 years, Mardis has been supplying his honey all across northern Mississippi, including places right in Oxford such as Chicory Market and the Mid-Town Farmers’ Market.

Sarah Doty, a sophomore student at the University of Mississippi originally from Brookhaven, Mississippi, has struggled with allergies since she was little and has found local honey provides some relief.

“Last week I had a runny nose and was coughing and sneezing 24/7, and I slept with a box of tissues beside me in bed,” Doty said. “I started taking honey and my allergies cleared up within 3 days, and now all I have is a little sniffle.”

UPDATE: Although this is an interesting idea that people have been practicing for a long time, according to Marshall, it may not be as beneficial for the majority of people.

“The major pollens that are problems for most people are those that are up in the air and wind, and the pollen that the bees use in their honey are not as much of a problem as most people,” Marshall said. “As long as they’re not diabetic where it would be hard on their blood sugar and they take it in moderation, I’m fine with it. It’s not going to harm them, and if it helps them then that’s great.”

If messing with sticky honey, isn’t up your alley, Dr. Marshall recommends the following as ways to combat seasonal allergy:

• Limit your outdoor activity in the early mornings when the pollen levels are the highest for the day. If you do have to go outside, use a handkerchief to shield your nose and mouth from the pollen floating in the air.
• Be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to taking allergy medicine.
• Even though tree pollen is going down, be prepared for the grass pollen to start up in the next few weeks.