My asthma patients can tell you there are times of year that they dread- worsened shortness of breath, need for medications, and often dramatically increased healthcare bills from ER visits to hospitalizations to the cost of missed work, school, and more. This isn’t just a drag for them, it’s a drag on our whole economy. How and why does pollen make us sick, and what can we do about it? I figured a pollen episode was the perfect way to kick off Spring.
For expertise, I spoke with Dr Sharmilee Nyenhuis, MD who is a professor in the department of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Chicago, where she is also the medical director of the pediatric asthma program. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) and Allergy/Immunology training at the University of Wisconsin. She served as the Director of the Allergy/Asthma/Immunology Program of the University of Illinois Chicago for 12 years and was Section Chief of Allergy at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. She joined the Section of Allergy/Immunology at the University of Chicago in 2022. She was recently appointed as the inaugural vice chair of health outcomes, advocacy and community health for the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Chicago.
She also engages in research to understand asthma, including the impact of air quality on people with asthma and what steps they can take to improve their health.
She recommends being aware of what is in the air; often pollen counts in popular apps are projections based on historical averages and not measured live. She provided a host or resources. It is also important to think about pollen in the air and having clean air indoors- this helps with a host of indoor air quality issues, from pollution and more. Leaving your shoes at the door, washing off pollen in the evening with a shower or washing your face. It can also help to add sinus rinses into the mix.
Spring through Fall are notoriously difficult allergy seasons, but as we are learning, with increasing carbon dioxide in the air changing our plants and warming our temperatures, pollen seasons are lengthening and becoming more intense. It is vitally important that we prepare for a future with more pollen, and fortunately, there are simple things we can do.
- Know your own allergies, and make a plan for that pollen season- avoiding peak pollen times outdoors, rinsing pollen off your face and maybe your sinuses when you come indoors, keeping windows closed and more
- Check out the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America Home Checklist for Allergies
- Find a pollen counter that actually counts pollen in real time, not based on historic controls. With climate change, history doesn’t predict what may be going on outdoors
- The time is always right to run a HEPA filter- if it’s not sweeping the pollen from your air, it will be cleaning out pollution or catching viruses.
- Share this episode with a friend who suffers from allergies.
- For more on the interaction of climate change and plant biology, listen to the “Science over Politics” episode from Season One.
- Consider a donation to the American Lung Association, who works hard to help those with asthma and allergies breathe better
Pollen image by Alex Jones on Unsplash
