Dealing with seasonal allergies

The impending arrival of spring also means the arrival of sneezing, sniffling, and brain fog for millions of people afflicted with seasonal allergies. Many people take prescription or over-the-counter medicines to treat them, but you can alleviate symptoms through a number of methods.

The Mayo Clinic offers a variety of tips to help people deal with allergies. They include minimizing your exposure by staying inside on dry, windy days to delegating lawn mowing duties and making sure to NOT hang laundry outside.

Some other tips include:

Avoid outdoor activity in the early morning when pollen counts are highest.

Use the air conditioning in your house and car, and use a dehumidifier to keep the indoor air dry.

Rinse your nasal passages with a saline solution, either via a squeeze bottle or a neti pot. Make up the saline solution using water that’s distilled, sterile, previously boiled and cooled, or filtered with an absolute pore size of 1 micron or smaller. Also make sure to rinse the irrigation device after each use with similarly distilled, sterile, previously boiled and cooled, or filtered water and leave open to air-dry.

Some natural treatments that may help include extracts of the shrub butterbur and spirulina, though the Mayo Clinic says the benefits and safety aren’t clear.

If symptoms are bad enough, visit your doctor. You may take tests to determine what, exactly, you are allergic to in order to avoid and/or treat those specific triggers.