Pouring rain, clapping thunder, and bright lightning may be making your allergy symptoms worse.
Instead of washing away allergies, this week’s thunderstorms may make the allergy season worse.
Eight-year-old Mack Atencia isn’t the only one who dreads the yellow stuff.
“It really bothers my allergies. It makes it actually worse,” says Austin Bearden of this Spring’s pollen.
And they’re not the only ones.
Dr. David Plaxico is an asthma and allergy specialist, he says this time of year he sees around 30 patients a day.
“Trees are pollinating, they’re dropping pollen into the air to be dispersed,” says Dr. Plaxico.
And he says storms like the ones that whipped through Central Georgia last weekend, could blow in even more allergens.
“It gets it circulating there, it’s more dispersed for a larger space than it would normally,” he says.
A study done by the University of Georgia and Emory University shows that thunderstorms actually break up the pollen particles into the air. And some allergy patients say that instead of washing away the allergens, the rain makes their symptoms worse.
“Runny nose, stuffy nose, sneezing coughing. It’s really annoying,” says Bearden.
“Sometimes I sneeze down to my foot,” says Atencia.
This year, Central Georgia is seeing the most pollen particles blowing through the air in two years that’s according to Dr. Plaxico’s research.
He also says with the rain and damp weather comes mold, which can jump start a runny nose.
Dr. Plaxico says with all the rain we’ve seen in the past week, he expects an early grass season, which could make symptoms for those with pollen allergies even worse.
http://www.13wmaz.com/news/local/article/122331/153/Study-Storms-May-Affect-Allergies