Spring is in Your Face ; Bloomin' Allergy Season Gets an Early Start This Year
Posted on: Thursday, 23 March 2006, 03:03 CST
By Tom Corwin< Staff Writer
Even in the midst of spring allergy season, Martha Brown could be considered an early warning.
"It seems like it's a lot earlier," she said in a patient exam room at Medical College of Georgia Hospital and Clinics. "It's usually more in April, first of May."
Though her grass allergies are just kicking in, those with tree allergies have been suffering for months, although the schedule does seem to be moved up this year. Those who know they will suffer should start taking precautions now, and that could mean more than prescription medications, experts said. And helping alleviate symptoms could be as simple as rinsing and washing, they said.
The blooming has already begun and the grass is beginning to green up, although tree pollens have been floating around since late January, said Dennis R. Ownby, chief of the section of allergy and immunology at MCG.
"We're probably two or three weeks earlier this year," Dr. Ownby said. "It will be well under way for (the) Masters (Tournament)."
"At our practice we have seen patients suffering earlier than last year," said Vanitcha R. Pintavorn of Augusta Family Allergy and Immunology. And that could get worse as the grass kicks in, Dr. Pintavorn said.
"When trees and grass have started to bloom a lot together, then usually the patients will be really suffering," she said.
Those patients that know they suffer from grass allergies could help themselves by making sure their medications are up to date now and begin taking them before their symptoms are severe, Dr. Ownby said. But that can prove a problem for some patients, whose insurance charges higher and higher co-pays for the medication or doesn't cover it at all, said Marshall Grodofsky of Connecticut Asthma and Allergy Center.
"So we've had patients who are electing not to take the medication because it's too expensive to take," said Dr. Grodofsky, the head of the Practice Management Committee for the American Academy of Asthma Allergy and Immunology. "Every day, I'll have five or six patients call me because their medication isn't covered."
So instead of the antihistamines, patients may choose to do more preventative and ultimately cheaper therapy such as allergy shots, which is a better strategy anyway, Dr. Grodofsky said.
"Our approach as allergists is to do preventive therapy, to try to control the inflammation before it becomes a problem," he said.
Reach Tom Corwin at (706) 823-3213
or tom.corwin@augustachronicle.com.
Source: Augusta Chronicle, The
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