AUSTIN (KXAN) — As runners raced to the finish line, some noses were also running — thanks to allergies.
“My nose runs a lot,” said Charlie Henderson, 12, who wore a turkey hat after completing a mile walk and run. “And, also, it’s kind of hard to breathe sometimes if I’m doing activities.”
For Henderson and his aunt, Jocelyn Johnson, Austin’s 34th annual Turkey Trot isn’t the only seasonal tradition.
“I have to take nose spray every morning so it’s easier to breathe out of my nose,” said Henderson. “‘Cause I’m real congested.”
“Mine’s pretty seasonal,” said Johnson, who had on a turkey hat with feathers along with a red race bib. “But, it’s mostly when mold and cedar are high. Puffy eyes, pretty bad headaches.”
That pain is likely to be felt even more this year.
“There seems to be more allergies coming earlier, lasting longer, with more intense pollen seasons,” said Dr. Allen Lieberman, a board-certified allergist with Austin Family Allergy and Asthma.
Plants are producing more pollen and allergy seasons, which are typically spaced apart, could be overlapping with ragweed lasting longer and cedar starting sooner, he said.
“A lot of this is a result of climate changes,” said Lieberman. “We’re seeing earlier, longer and more intense seasons.”
Ragweed pollen season is lasting longer — in some cases by almost a month — across the central U.S. and Canada, according to the latest data from the Environmental Protection Agency, which looked at changes between 1995–2015.
“Uh, I don’t like that,” Henderson said, after learning his allergy symptoms could be getting worse.
We’re still several weeks away from the “real peak and intensity” from cedar allergy season, Lieberman added. One concern he’s starting to see from his patients is their usual go-to medications and nasal sprays “aren’t as effective” as they used to be because allergy seasons “have become so intense,” he added.
That’s why Johnson isn’t taking any chances.
“We see an allergist in our family and we’re taking shots for that just to try to get ahead of it so we don’t end up with sinus infections like we do in January or February each year,” said Johnson. “It’s pretty miserable.”
“Your head hurts all day,” she added. “It’s not fun.”
KXAN uses an automated pollen sampling machine to give up-to-the minute counts which, on Thanksgiving, showed very high levels of mold.