Winter Allergies - What Can We Do About Them?

Mostly we think of spring as the Allergy Season. Often we can see clouds of pollen and blossom blowing in the wind. So it comes as a shock to learn that many allergy sufferers have an awful time in the winter.

Allergies can be triggered by many different things; pollen from flowers and trees are often responsible but for the Winter Allergy sufferer household mould is often to blame.

After all in the winter we have the windows and doors sealed to prevent cold wind and rain chilling us. But the result of sealing the house is the rise of humidity which is exactly what mould needs to grow.

Doctors have advised that keeping the humidity below 35% helps not just to inhibit mould but dust mites too.

Dust mites are tiny animals, rather like ticks. They leave their droppings wherever they go-and it is their droppings that cause our allergic reactions. Every animal has to eat and dust mites eat the tiny fragments of human skin that fall off us everyday. If you are allergic to these critters you may find that measures such as using dust-proof bedding covers very helpful. Another standard measure is to diminish the number of "dust traps" such as carpets and rugs, especially in the bedroom. This is especially important for asthma sufferers.

Also in the winter we may be in contact with our pets for longer and it is sad but true that banning Fido or Tibbles from the bedroom is essential in the case of a pet allergy.

So that "winter cold" you have been suffering from, well if it has gone on for more than a few days, there is a good chance that you are showing signs of a winter allergy. The typical symptoms are blocked or running nose, painful sinuses and scratchy eyes and throat.

One way to start to take action against these winter woes is to take notes. Do the symptoms occur after more contact with a pet? Or even after eating a winter food-in which case this is not an environmental allergy after all but a classic food allergy. If there is no obvious pattern at all except that you have a winter allergy one way to treat it and test it is to take a holiday.

This welcome advice has medical evidence behind it. Often children in Europe lose their allergy symptoms when they go to the Alps. The dry mountain air does not allow dust mites to thrive. British children have found the same benefit by visiting Spain. Apparently dust mites are beaten by Spanish heat.

Winter allergies can make life misery but there are many steps we can take against them even without taking medication!