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Allergy danger Hazel and alder already blossom in many regions
In some regions of Germany pollen has started. Blame for the early start is the mild weather of recent weeks. For people with hay fever it begins the suffering. However, there are ways to alleviate the discomfort.
Mild temperatures ensure early pollen
In January, temperatures in some regions of Germany were much milder than usual. Therefore, pollen is already in the air in some German states. In allergic persons, these cause typical hay fever symptoms such as dripping nose, itchy eyes, shortness of breath or coughing. Health experts point out ways to help get the symptoms under control.
The mild temperatures of recent weeks have ensured that the pollen season starts again very early. For allergy sufferers, there are ways to relieve their symptoms. (Image: zstock / fotolia.com) Pollen flight in West Germany
Hazel and alder are once again the harbingers of the pollen season this year. These pollen fly from the Rhineland over Westphalia to the Saarland as well as in parts of Hesse and Baden-Wuerttemberg for days, as the "pollen risk index" of the German Weather Service (DWD) shows.
The fact that the season already starts in winter is no longer so unusual, because it has been evident for years that the pollen fly earlier and earlier.
"As far as global warming is concerned, the flowering time of the early flowering plants has shifted forward - especially in the case of hazel," said Christina Endler, meteorologist and expert on pollen from the DWD, in a news agency dpa.
Pollen season has lengthened
According to the expert, the first month of the month was a "below-average cold January", not as cold as January's. However, she is currently unable to draw any precise conclusions about how the pollen season 2017 will go.
The pollen season has been prolonged in the long run due to global warming in recent years. "However, it is not uncommon for hazel and leprosy to be in the air in small quantities," says Endler.
Do not confuse signs of allergy with flu
The German Pollen Information Foundation (PID), which compiles the nationwide pollen count prediction in the "Pollen Danger Index" with the DWD, points out that medical advice can help if necessary, so that the signs of a pollen allergy are interpreted correctly and not confused with a flu.
If the symptoms are not overly severe, home remedies for hay fever, such as saline, can be helpful. For stronger symptoms, experts sometimes recommend medication.
According to dpa, Karl-Christian Bergmann, allergist at the Berlin Charité and chairman of the PID, said: "Antihistamines can help people suffering from hay fever. They prevent the spread of histamine in the body. "According to the physician, the messenger substance causes the nasal mucosa to swell and causes it to secrete more secretions.
Pollen escape on vacation
"Patients with a pollen allergy usually know at the latest in the second year of complaints, when the time has come at home, in which their pollen cold makes the stay outdoors," writes the PID on its website.
"It is a natural desire to travel in the pollen time on holiday to a place that is as free as possible pollen," it continues.
But only a few regions are really free of pollen: on the high seas all year round, in high mountains like in the Alps there are pollen-free times from the end of July.
"Holidays on the North or Baltic Sea coast can be a rest for those affected, but you should always keep an eye on the wind direction. At Landwind, the complaint-free nature can quickly come to an end, "says Bergmann.
As the PID writes, although there are sometimes in foreign countries because of other botany and flowering sometimes no complaints, but on longer stays is "a sensitization to new types of pollen is not excluded, which is why a visit again a year or two later pollen complaints can occur." (Ad)