Fall Pollens are Gone, but Winter is not Immune from Allergies

If you just survived the fall pollen season only to have a recurrence of your allergy symptoms in winter, you may be wondering what’s going on with your immune system.

winter allergy

For some people, winter may not present an escape from allergies at all. While spring and fall allergies may be primarily triggered by outdoor elements, year-round allergies may come from elements in your home. In order to avoid the cold, we tend to spend more time indoors where allergens are plentiful.

Here are the most common indoor allergy triggers that may be stirring up your winter allergies.

  1. Pet Dander. Pet dander is composed of tiny flakes of skin shed by animals. If you have a furry pet at home, you can expect dander to be most everywhere–in the air you breathe, the furniture, the clothes you wear, etc. Though some dog and cat breeds are “hypo-allergenic,” there are no truly dander-free animals, and they may still stir up allergy symptoms.
  2. Mold. Mold grows in damp, poorly-ventilated areas such as bathrooms and basements. In more moderate temperatures, you may be able to open windows to control mold growth, but that may not be possible in the cold of winter.  No house is mold-free, but you can mitigate mold by making sure the indoor humidity is within normal levels. Proper ventilation and regular cleaning are key.
  3. Dust Mites. These are tiny bugs in the house that thrive on organic debris like sloughed-off skin flakes. They can be found in curtains, upholstered furniture, mattresses, carpets, etc. Replacing carpets with hardwood flooring and switching out curtains for blinds can help. Mattress and pillow covers can help, too.

An important things to remember is that if your allergies last for four or more months of the year, you may be a good candidate for physician-prescribed allergy immunotherapy. Consult AllergyEasy.com about physicians near you who offer no-shots, no-hassle allergy immunotherapy.

 

About The Author

Stuart H. Agren, M.D.

Stuart H. Agren, M.D. completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Utah and went on to earn his Doctor of Medicine from Tulane University School of Medicine in 1974. He completed additional training at L.D.S. Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah and then established his private medical practice starting in 1975. Dr. Agren completed a mini-residency in Industrial Medicine at the Robert Johnson School of Medicine at Rutgers University and also completed training to become a certified Medical Review Officer.

Dr. Agren was the Medical Director at TRW and McDonnell Douglas in Mesa, Arizona and at Stauffer Chemical and Kennecott Copper in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also served as an adjunct faculty member at Arizona State University.

In his private medical practice, Dr. Agren specialized in family practice and allergy. In his work as a private practice allergist, he was one of the first doctors in the country to prescribe sublingual immunotherapy to his patients as an alternative to subcutaneous immunotherapy (allergy shots). He has also been a trailblazer in the field of food allergy treatment and research, developing a program to treat multiple food allergies simultaneously using sublingual immunotherapy. Dr. Agren has been featured on local CBS, NBC, and ABC news affiliates and won the peer-nominated “Top Doc” award from Phoenix Magazine.

After 20 years in private practice, Dr. Agren became the Founder and President of AllergyEasy, which helps primary care physicians around the country offer allergy testing and sublingual immunotherapy treatment to their patients. Over 200 physicians in over 32 states use the AllergyEasy program to help their patients overcome environmental and food allergies and asthma.