It's the pollen you can't see that makes you sneeze, says Calgary doctor

Tree pollen has swept through Calgary's streets, dusting the city in yellow. According to Calgary allergy and clinical immunologyspecialist Dr. Joel Doctor, it's the pollen you can't see that makes you sneeze.

Q: What are you seeing and hearing in your office?

A:Right now we are in the middle of the tree pollen allergy season, andbecausethe weather's been very, very nice over the last few weeks, we've had a really strong start to the allergy season.

We've seen massive amounts of pollen all over cars andthe ground at times, if you look at spruce and elm trees, you'll literally see pollen flying like yellow dust out of the trees andsettling on the ground. And that's what everyone is seeing and noticing.

Q: What is causing the problems?

A:Most of the yellow pollen is from the pine andspruce trees in the area and that pollen tends to be very heavy andvery sticky. That pollen is released from those trees anddoesn't go very far it tends to sink to the ground and stay until it's washed away by the rain.

At the same time, there's other pollens being released by other trees, such as birch trees, which is very, very small we're talking particles maybe 75 microns in size. And particles that size, they stay airborne for long periods of time, and can travel very great distances, and it's those particles that cause hay fever.

Q: So the thick yellowstuff is not what's causing problems?

A:For the most part, no becauseit doesn't stay airborne very long. It tends just to fall to the ground and stick.

But at the same time, there are other trees that are pollinating that are causing a lot ofhay fever. In the Albertaregion, birch trees are the most common cause of springtime hay fever and people are getting hit very hard by that.

There's pollen from other trees that accumulates as well but most of that is from pine trees andspruce. And there's other trees pollinating as well, like cottonwood andpoplars. They all contribute to that.

Once tree season winds down over the next week or so, we head into grass allergy season and we're not going tosee a lot ofthat yellow stuff on the ground during grass allergy season, that in fact is a stronger allergy season for most Albertans.

Q. What is it about that is it the grass itself?

A:It's the northern pasture grass andwe're surrounded by those grasses, and their pollens travel huge distances and they cause an awful lot of hay fever.

That tends to start ramping up in early June, peaking usually around Stampede time early July is the peak for the grass allergy season, then it winds down later in July, then in August andSeptember,the allergy season tends to wind down a lot.

Q: What do you recommend allergy sufferers do?

A: For people being affected by this, the logical first thing to do is take a really good over-the-counter, non-sedating, antihistamine that would be good first-line treatment and it would be good for alleviating the symptoms of itching andsneezing.

Q: I thought you were going to say you just have to stay inside.

A:That's an option if it's really quite bad and you're suffering quite terribly, it's a great day to go see a matinethe air conditioning in the shopping centre is fantastic.

The worst thing to do is spend a lot of time in the wind, on a hot, dry, windy afternoon, riding a bike for example. Being outside entails a much higher level of exposure, and patients will suffer.

Q: How does this year compare to other years?

A:Right now I'd say it's actually stronger than average, largely because it has been very dry, and quite warm over the last couple of weeks. So we've had very high tree pollen counts.If this weather pattern continues, then we'll likely have a stronger than average season into June and Julyas well.

Q: There's rain in forecast. Will that help?

When it rains, then pollen tends to be taken out of the air, so rain is really an excellent reprieve for allergy sufferers.

It will [also]give us a break between the tree pollen season right now and the grass allergy season that's about to start so these patients will get a bit of a break between the two seasons.

Q: Does it affect everyone?

A:There's only about 25 per centor so of the population that has any kind of seasonal allergy symptoms and that's a combination of factors, including a genetic predisposition to develop allergies.

There are some people who can hang around pollens and animals and peanuts and they never develop allergies. They're just not genetically prone to do so.

Of course you cant pick your parents. This stuff is geneticit's always a package deal but again, for the most part, it's verycontrollable. And manageable.

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