Posted on November 03, 2023
SEASONAL ALLERGIES AND PREVENTION.
Category:Wellness
Is this a cold? A flue? Is this an allergy? Questions from people that are getting allergies for the first time because allergies can start at a later age like 20’s or even 50’s. There’s no reported death from such seasonal allergies but there is a lot of discomfort. You could say that the luckier people are the ones that already know they have seasonal allergies and try their best to prevent or ease them because since their childhood they have had them and got to know how to handle them. On the other hand, getting them and you do not really know what’s going on is the unlucky bit so, what are these seasonal allergies?
Seasonal allergies are a bad reaction that occurs to a person with the weather being the cause. The more the weather changes, the more the reactions so allergies to a person living in an African country like Uganda are minimal because we only experience 2 seasons. The dry season with the driest months from December to February and rainy seasons that occur from march to May with few rains while September to November, we get to have the longer heavy rains and that is the season known to come with some delicious insects called grasshoppers.
The rainy seasons come with cold as the major allergen. While dry seasons come with dry air, heat and dust. These are a menace to people with seasonal allergies. Seasonal allergies present with;
- Itchy teary eyes
- Runny or stuffy nose
- Sore or prickly throat
- Irritation on the nose that will lead to scratching
- Intolerable coldness
- Sneezing & sniffling
- Hives and rash
Other persons will experience headache, fatigue or be irritable due to discomfort. If you find that in a particular month you get any of those above, it could mean you have a seasonal allergy.
Now that we have seen what seasonal allergies are, how do we prevent them?
First, know which season triggers the allergy so that you are better prepared.
Get ready with medications such as antihistamines or corticosteroids
Try out known and verified Do It Yourself (DIYs) at home such as steaming and having diffusers in the room with essential oils like eucalyptus.