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Hay Fever, Perennial Sneezing, and Asthma
by Tom alter
Some people who inherit an allergy sensitive background develop certain
allergies from time to time. These allergies may be due to many environmental
factors and sometimes symptoms of asthma are also impersonated by them. Some
common forms of these allergic reactions may be seasonal while others may be
perennial in nature.
It is important to understand the differences between these and asthma so that
they are never confused with asthma because their treatments as well the
severity both differ from each other. Seasonal sneezing is called seasonal
allergic rhinitis or hay fever in the common parlance. As against the name it is
not caused because of hay but because of certain pollutants mainly certain kinds
of pollen in the environment to which a person may be allergic.
In contrast to these people some others suffer with sneezing bouts, stuffy or
running nose almost all the year round. These people suffer from perennial
sneezing or perennial allergic rhinitis. When these people are exposed to cold
wind, sunlight, dust and fumes the symptoms of the sneezing bouts precipitate.
In hay fever or seasonal allergic rhinitis the symptoms appear gradually or all
of a sudden. This depends upon the degree of exposure to the offending allergen
and also upon the degree to which the person may be allergic to them. When the
symptoms appear gradually they are accompanied with mild sensation of itching
and burning of the eyes and mild irritation in the nose or itching of the palate
inside the mouth.
The symptoms usually appear in the early morning hours when the concentration
of pollen grains is at its peak. The sneezing bouts are also accompanied with
marked increase in the nasal congestion, throat congestion, running of the nose
profusely and watery eyes. The nasal mucous membrane becomes highly sensitive
with advancement of symptoms and any slight change in the nasal mucous membrane
manifests in heavy bouts of sneezing.
These changes may be of very slight nature like appearance of a draft, strong
odors, or even minute quantities of dust. In addition to these symptoms there
may be appearance of other associated symptoms like general lethargy, loss of
appetite, drowsiness and also pain in the body with slight rise in temperature.
In some patients in addition to the above mentioned conditions the symptoms
of bronchial asthma also develop side by side making the conditions worse. These
symptoms either develop right from the start of the other symptoms or may
develop later as the disease advances. The worse part is that once a person
starts with these symptoms he may continue with the symptoms of asthma even
after the sneezing attacks stop.
This condition can be very easily diagnosed with the study of the case history
of the patient. The tests usually undertaken to identify the pollens are skin
tests with extracts of the pollen and scratch or intracutaneous tests giving
positive reactions to the pollens simultaneously with a confirmation of the same
through consultation of the pollen calendar.
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