Ah-choo! A hay fever allergies poll.

What sets off your hay fever? All flowering things, or just certain types, or just one or two?

For me, the undisputed #1 offender is cherry tree pollen. When I’m driving, if I see the blooming cherry trees looming, I quickly turn off the air. This seems to help a little.

Ragweed makes me sneeze, but that’s a distant second to the overwhelming miseries (eyes, nose, throat) of cherry trees.

While sniffing a flower bouquet may make me sneeze on occasion, cut flowers hardly give me hay fever per se. It’s hard to tell offhand, though, if the problem with cherry pollen amounts to quality or quantity – since those trees generate so much of it, and they’re often planted in clusters or rows anyway.
O.K., who’s next?

I’ve read that 12% of the Japanese are allergic to Japanese cedar pollen. I’m one of them. Since cedar pollen spreads over wide areas, there’s not much point in avoiding wooded areas. I have mild but constant sinus headaches and itchy eyes throughout March and April - and that’s with medication. :frowning:

Another tree pollen suffer. I have not narrowed it down, but it is something that apparently doesn’t exist in the UK, because I have had not a sniffle the whole time I have been here. But back home, I used to feel like I couldn’t breathe for weeks in the Spring (a little less in the fall). Also allergic to dust, and something in freshly mowed grass–I am a joy to be around in three seasons out of four, as you can imagine. Thankfully, I get almost total relief from Claritan, although I try to ration it because it is so expensive.

Birch pollen. One of the little flods is also allergic just to birch pollen, the other has the Scandinavian Spring Trio: hazel, alder, and birch. Fortunately the one with the triple isn’t as sensitive to pollen as his brother…

Somehow it seems wrong that all this misery is caused by trees f***ing. :dubious:

Birch pollen’s my enemy too. I sneeze a million times a day and my eyes are too itchy to wear my contacts.

I was outside today and saw the first little “worms” growing on the birch trees. Then I went to buy Claritin, because by this time next week I will be a sneezy mess.

I’m lucky, though, because that’s the only one that really bothers me, and it only lasts a few weeks. I have friends who pop Claritin or Allegra like candy all through the summer because they’re allergic to pretty much everything green. I’ve suggested they move to Antarctica to save on antihistamine expenses, but I don’t think they found me funny. :smiley:

Tree pollen in the spring, and something else (ragweed, maybe) in the fall.

I once heard an allergy doctor who said the trend of selling male trees has had a terrible effect on allergy sufferers. Folks who don’t want to rake up the seeds or fruit from a female tree will buy a male tree, and it klops us sneezers in the kloop. “What difference could it make, if other people on the street have male trees,” asked the interviewer. “Well, imagine a man smoking a cigar right outside your window,” said the doctor. “You’d smell it right away. If he were smoking down the street, you might not notice the smell at all.”

Going outside. No, seriously. Between March and October I have terrible reactions when I go outside. One doctor suggested that I just stay indoors during allergy season – sure, I just won’t go outside for eight months. :rolleyes: Sometimes just going around the block for lunch will cause me to have an attack. I also have to keep my windows closed no matter how hot it gets, because letting the outside air into my apartment is big trouble.

Scratch tests found that I am allergic to 28 different pollens. I know that I’m allergic to a lot of tree pollens, but also various other plants. There are certain locations that are almost always problematic for me. I take Claritin when it gets particularly bad, but I can’t take it daily or I start to get too tired.

Antigen - hmmm…I never thought of that Antartica thing. :dubious:

I’m another fall sufferer. August 20th–give or take only a day, like clockwork!–till the first frost, I am miserable.

The only thing that works for me (and only up to a point) is Sudafed.

That whole outside thing for me, too. If I walk in grass and weeds that haven’t been mowed in a couple of weeks, I get contact dermatitis. If I go outside when anything is green, I can count on the phlegm factories cranking out mucus by the bucketload. Insect bites and stings will turn into large, hot, painfully itchy lumps. I’m EXTREMELY allergic to bee and wasp stings. A pity, because I rather like bees.

When I lived in Las Vegas, I didn’t have NEARLY as many problems, because there just weren’t that many green things around. Plenty of brown things, but not so many green things.

Dogs. I like dogs well enough, but if I’m around them for too long, or I pet them too much, I notice a reaction.

Of course, I’m ALSO allergic to house dust.

Oh, and I’m quite sensitive to tobacco smoke, I’ll have an attack if I get more than the merest whiff of it. This keeps me out of bars and some arcades. Oddly enough, I’m even MORE sensitive to most incense, which I regard as quite a pity, because I used to love to burn incense, and I wish I still could.

I am not allergic to pine trees. thats about it
I seem to be allergic to most everything else, including most allergy meds