![]() This will often help you feel better for a short time. You might even consider moving to get away from ragweed. Cover your hair when outside or wash it at night.Don’t wear your “outside” clothes to bed.If you spend a lot of time outside during peak pollen time: Prevent pollen from being tracked into your home. If you do spend time outside, try to go out in the afternoons and evenings. Get a CERTIFIED asthma & allergy friendly® air filter for your air conditioner. Stay indoors in central air conditioning when the pollen count is high. You also can get your area’s pollen counts from the National Allergy Bureau. The news media often reports the count for your area, especially when pollen is high. But there are ways to treat and manage it. There is no cure for a ragweed pollen allergy. Sometimes your doctor may take a blood test to see if you have the antibody to ragweed. If you are sensitive to ragweed, you will develop redness, swelling and itching at the test site within 15 minutes. They will then lightly prick or scratch your skin with a needle through the drop. They may do a skin prick test to confirm your allergy.įor prick/scratch testing, the doctor or nurse places a small drop containing ragweed pollen on your skin. They will ask you about your medical history, do a physical exam and allergy testing. If you think you are allergic to ragweed pollen, see a board-certified allergist. If you have severe allergies, ragweed might trigger asthma symptoms, chronic sinusitis, headaches and congestion that can interfere with sleep. Common OAS symptoms include itchy mouth, throat, tongue or face. OAS occurs because your immune system confuses ragweed pollen with certain foods. This is called oral allergy syndrome (OAS). If you have a ragweed allergy, you may also get symptoms when you eat these foods: If you have allergies to one type of pollen, you tend to develop allergies to other types of pollen as well. Seventy-five percent of people who are allergic to pollen are also allergic to ragweed. But sniffing these plants can cause symptoms. Some family members spread their pollen by insects instead of by wind. Ragweed also belongs to a larger family of plants that can spread pollen by wind. Seventeen types of ragweed grow in North America. When you are allergic to ragweed pollen and inhale it from the air, rhinitis (hay fever) symptoms show up. People with allergies have immune systems that react when they come in contact with allergens. This response normally protects us from harmful diseases. The job of your immune system is to find foreign substances, like viruses and bacteria, and get rid of them. Dormant seeds that live in the soil for decades may grow when the conditions are right. It is often found along roadsides, riverbanks, in vacant lots and fields. But where streams of water, farming or chemicals upset the soil – like salting roads in the winter – ragweed will grow. Turf grasses and other perennial plants easily overgrow ragweed. It has been found in the air 400 miles out to sea and two miles up in the atmosphere. Rain and morning temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit slow down the release of pollen. Near the plants, the pollen counts are highest right after dawn. The pollen then travels through the air to another plant to fertilize the seed so a new plant can grow next year. Warm weather, humidity and breezes after sunrise help release the pollen. When mid-August nights grow longer, ragweed flowers mature and release pollen. But that one plant can produce up to 1 billion pollen grains. Ragweed is a weed that grows throughout the United States, especially in the Eastern and Midwestern states. In most areas in the U.S., it peaks in mid-September. Depending on your location, ragweed season may last six to 10 weeks. Your symptoms may continue until the first frost kills the plant. You may feel uncomfortable when ragweed plants release pollen into the air.
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