Audience: Middle School Students
Pollen can help us travel back in time; fossilized pollen serves to give us information about the origin and geologic history of plant life. Photo by Alex Jones from Unsplash.
For many schools, spring break has just ended. After weeks of time-off, groggy students return to their seats. One student went swimming in Hawaii while another fed kangaroos in Australia. One of your classmates climbed Half Dome! But you? You spent the whole break sneezing, coughing, itching your nose, and suffering with burning red eyes. You didn’t get the flu or catch a cold – you got springtime allergies.
Springtime allergies are seasonal allergies, meaning that the symptoms of your allergies occur during specific seasons of the year. On the other hand, year-round allergies occur regardless of the season. Springtime allergies generally begin during February and last up until early June. An example of year-round allergies are dust mites – small, insect-like pests that feed on dead human skin cells and often live in house dust. Dust mite allergy symptoms include sneezing, difficulty breathing, coughing, and watery eyes.
So then what makes springtime allergies different from year-round allergies? The answer lies in the causes of springtime allergies. The biggest trigger for spring allergies is pollen. Pollen is a powdery substance that most plants produce when they reproduce. Trees, grass, and weeds release pollen into the air (which can travel for miles) to fertilize other plants. However, in the process of doing so, the pollen might end up inside your nose simply through inhalation. This pollen is foreign to your immune system. The immune system serves to keep itself healthy and safe by destroying infectious microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi that invade the body. This system consists of complicated networks of cells and organs. Allergic reactions are caused by an antibody (a protein produced by the immune system when a harmful substance is detected) called immunoglobulin E (IgE). Every IgE is specific and reacts to certain pollen, meaning that a person can be allergic to one pollen type but not allergic to a different type of pollen. The symptoms of an allergic reaction depend largely on the type of allergen and its abundance as well as how the immune system is able to react to that allergen. The most common symptoms caused by springtime allergies are runny nose, congestion, water eyes, sneezing, coughing, itchy eyes and nose, stuffy nose, tickly throat, and dark circles under the eyes.
Contrary to popular belief, pollen is not always present year-round. Since it is most abundant during spring – the time when most flowers bloom and release pollen – the symptoms of pollen allergies are most prevalent then. Since the immune system responds differently from person to person, the severity of the symptoms from springtime allergies varies for each person. While one person may have mild itching in their eyes, another person’s eyes might be swollen shut!
While it may be difficult to eliminate springtime allergies, there are a few things you can do to reduce the severity. Keep your doors and windows shut, wash your clothes consistently in case pollen sticks to them, or avoid high exposure to pollen altogether by maintaining your distance from leafy areas – that means you may have to skip mowing your lawn one day! Now that springtime is here, you might see pollen flying around in the air. Perhaps it will end up in another flower — or maybe in your nose!
Bibliography:
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