What is Hay Fever?

The name is almost as confusing as the condition is annoying. It is rarely incited by hay, and fevers do not occur. Seasonal pollinosis would be a better term.

The price we pay for living with California greenery is hay fever. Elsewhere in America pollinosis is a six week to three month affair, here it is non-stop. The culprit is the male gametocyte or pollen, which contains the sperm to unite with the female’s ovum. This produces seed to maintain the plant species; thus, we are nourished by generations of vegetation all started by pollen.

About 20% of us suffer from hay fever. The number escalates every year. All of us have an allergy tendency and we all inherit immunity through development of allergic antibodies. Most of us escape hay fever because of a low genetic predisposition or low exposure. Others of us, however, become victims and may develop severe distress.

The pollen count rises at the rate of 10 to 15 percent per year. Efforts to halt the spiraling rise of pollen are underway. What we plant is basic. Both the homeowner and those responsible for outdoor landscaping are responsible to plant ‘safer’ trees and bush. Choose from the 92% of plant species!

Allergic landscape is less attractive than a ‘sneezeless garden’. Allergenic plant pollen gets to our noses. They are spread by the wind, being light, buoyant, and plentiful. Allergenic flowers are drab and inconspicuous. Think, can you describe the flower of the notorious Bermuda grass? On the other hand, non-allergenic plants depend on ‘their sex appeal’ for their fertilization. They must attract insects to carry the pollen from plant to plant. The wind is no help here. While the insects forage for food, they are drawn to the attractive, colorful, aromatic flower, and inadvertently pick up the large sticky pollen and transfer them to the next flower where fertilization (reproduction) occurs. Sometimes when our noses are already plugged, and drippy, even flowers bother us. However this is an irritative effect, rather than an allergy and is happily short lived.

Bill Ziering

Rx365  A Year of Tips for the Successful Medical Practice