Over the last several weeks, people are just starting to feel it. I’m starting to see patients with symptoms of tree pollen allergies and early blooming grasses. And while it is far too early to tell just how bad the coming allergy season will be, a few days of warm temperatures are all we need to set off the pollen cascade.
The important thing is to start treating tree and grass pollen allergies before the season gets really bad. For trees, that is usually sometime in April for the Long Beach area, with grasses hitting their peak in May and into early June.
This is really the time of year— right now— when you want to get ahead of it. The bottom line is it is much easier to prep for allergy seasons before the pollen is released in the air, triggering an inflammatory response. Once that occurs, it is much harder to reign it back in.
Early treatment usually involves antihistamines, maybe nasal steroids or antihistamine eye drops. If they provide no relief, the next step is consultation with an allergist and possible immunotherapy, or desensitizing the body to an allergen. Traditionally, it has been done by injection, but now there are two sublingual tablets available that work well for grass allergies. For many, especially children, these tablets provide a welcome alternative to shots. But this form of immunotherapy needs three to four months to take effect, which means the window for protection for this grass allergy season is quickly closing now.
Dr. Marc Tamaroff is an allergist at Dignity Health St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach and associate clinical professor of Medicine at UCLA.
