LIFE

Spring's flowering trees bring allergic sneezes

Shari Rudavsky
IndyStar

The storybook signs of spring don’t include tissues, nasal spray and antihistamines. But for a number of people allergy symptoms such as sneezes, itchy eyes and runny noses are as much a harbinger of the new season as warm weather and blooming flowers.

As temperatures rose this week, patients flocked to doctors’ offices, seeking relief from allergy symptoms. With temperatures predicted to continue to rise and more plants coming into bloom, more people will likely find themselves sniffling, tearing and coughing.

“It always catches people by surprise in Indiana because it can go from really cold to really warm, and then everything blooms,” said Dr. Diana Burtea, a family physician with Community Physician Network Family Medicine Care in Carmel.

According to forecasts, the coming days will be high pollen days. Cue even more misery.

Over the past week Dr. Danielle Van Gemert, a family medicine doctor with Franklin Township Family Medicine, said she has started to see many patients complaining of allergy symptoms. Earlier this week she even had a few who said they had never had allergies before.

Some people may mistake their symptoms for a cold.

Dr. Maria Robles, associate chief physician at Eskenazi Health West 38th Street, is accustomed to the confusion.

“Every spring and fall, people come in and say, 'I’ve had this cold for three weeks,'” she said.

That’s the first clue it’s probably not a cold. Itchy eyes, no fever, and symptoms that have stayed the same for a few weeks signal allergies, Robles said.

Still, allergies can morph into an infection. Allergies are just a part of the rites of spring for Jen Schmits Thomas’ 13-year-old daughter. But this year the teen’s spring allergies, which started about a week ago, led to an ear infection.

Now she is taking three pills twice a day for the ear infection in addition to Claritin for her allergies, which leave her with a runny nose, a cough and red eyes.

And Thomas is watching the weather closely on behalf of her daughter.

“Typically once the weather changes and it gets warmer, it’s fine. It ceases,” she said.

An Indiana town recovering from 190 HIV cases

Different people have sensitivities to different pollens, and some have mold allergies as well, experts say. This year’s warm, wet winter brought patients with mold allergies to Burtea’s office throughout the winter.

Even some of those with spring allergies suffered a little earlier than usual, said Dr. Theresa Rohr-Kirchgraber, executive director of the Indiana University National Center for Excellence for Women’s Health. February’s unseasonably warm weather encouraged some grasses and trees to start budding. Then colder weather followed, eradicating those symptoms.

“It seemed like we had some stops and starts,” Rohr-Kirchgraber said.

Nor is it just pollen that can cause irritations.

The air quality over the past week also has been poor, Van Gemert said, which also can lead to the same symptoms as spring allergies.

In recent weeks more and more plant and tree species have been coming into flower — and with that comes pollen, often lots of it.

People may blame colorful, aromatic flowers for their allergy symptoms, but the culprit is more likely tree species with less conspicuous blooms, said Rosie Lerner, a Purdue extension consumer horticulture specialist with the university's horticulture department.

“It’s not the real, showy beautiful flowers whose pollen is the problem. Typically their pollen is carried by insects,” she said. “It’s the non-showy flowers, the ones that are more likely to put pollen out in the air … the things that you don’t really notice they’re in bloom. And they give off an amazing amount of pollen.”

These trees — such as red maples, willows spruces, pines, walnut and oak trees, all with dry, powdery pollen — spread their pollen in the wind, so it blows everywhere, including into your nose.

Ah-choo!

Spring allergies are acting up for many people. In most cases showy flowers are not the culprit but less conspicuous trees that spread their pollen on the wind.

Call IndyStar reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354. Follow her on Twitter: @srudavsky.

Lilly scientists look to space to help research