How Climate Change Is Extending the Allergy Season — and What You Can Do About It

Allergies are among the most common medical conditions in the world. In the United States alone, more than 50 million people suffer from allergies each year.

Seasonal-allergy symptoms — such as red, itchy eyes; runny nose; sneezing; and cough — are rarely life threatening, but they can cause plenty of suffering. “Pollen is one of the things that isn’t going to kill you, but it has tremendous health consequences in terms of lost days at work or people buying cold medicines because they’re so miserable,” says professor of emergency medicine Jay Lemery, MD, FACEP, FAWM, codirector of the Climate and Health Program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and coauthor of ­Enviromedics: The Impact of Climate Change on Human Health.

The growing amount of carbon dioxide in the air, combined with warmer temperatures and longer growing seasons, means we can expect a greater burden of seasonal allergies in many parts of the world.

The growing amount of carbon dioxide in the air, combined with warmer temperatures and longer growing seasons, means we can expect a greater burden of seasonal allergies in many parts of the world.

“Remember, carbon dioxide is like plant food,” Lemery notes. “We’re already seeing increases in ragweed and pollen and a longer pollen season in northern latitudes.”

How to Build Resilience

Although allergies may seem like a seasonal inevitability, there are nonpharmaceutical tools that can help us manage their effects.

“The allergic response in humans is an immune-system response,” says Mary Purdy, MS, RDN, an integrative nutritionist and eco-dietitian in Seattle. “It can often be a result of the immune system being on some kind of high-alert status.”

She suggests addressing the health of the gut as one avenue for calming this state of alarm. The immune response is usually “directly related to the status of the gut microbiome; approximately 70 percent of the immune system resides there,” she says.

Reducing the body’s inflamma­tory response is also key. “Brightly colored fruits and vegetables, herbs, and spices all contain compounds that reduce inflammation and help the body’s immune response be less reactive,” Purdy says.

A plant-heavy diet, rich in diverse fiber and phytochemicals from a wide variety of foods, can also help nurture the gut microbiome in an immune-supporting way.

When allergies do strike, Purdy says, try supplements with plant-derived antihistamine combinations, such as quercetin (also found in apples and ­onions), stinging nettle, bromelain (found in pineapple), and vitamin C (found in ­citrus, red peppers, and broccoli). (Read more about quercetin and other sources of allergy relief.)

And although the research is mixed, some studies suggest that eating raw, local honey can benefit people with seasonal allergies, because it’s likely to contain pollen from the same area. The idea is that regularly exposing the body to small amounts of an allergen can help desensitize the immune system.

Increasing your body’s production of the antioxidant glutathione might also mitigate reactions that affect the lungs, including asthma. Sulfur-rich foods, such as garlic, onion, and broccoli, boost glutathione production in the body, or you can take a ­glutathione-supporting supplement, such as N-acetylcysteine. (Find out more about allergies at ­”Taking On the Allergy Epidemic.”)

This was excerpted from “How Climate Change Affects Your Health — and How to Build Resilience” which was published in Experience Life magazine.