let's continue to dig into the spring allergy season I mean it did start this month we're going to take a look at the pollen count for our area just how much pollen is in the air today well right now most of the pollen is coming from all the trees we're going to take a look at this graphic so that you can see on the right side of the table the area is near 31 grain per square meter what does that mean well the Department of Environmental Quality considers that a moderate amount of pollen in the
air when those numbers starting to tick up you really need ways to deal with the pollen you can wear a good pair of sunglasses to protect your eyes from all that pollen that's flying around if you've been outside you can take a shower change your clothes turn on the air conditioner or an air purifier and definitely keep those windows closed and whatever you do do not rub your eyes a couple things that could happen one you're disrupting your tear film when you rub your eyes this pretty heavily th
ere and it can cause blurry vision your tears can separate on the tear film causing dryness and as you rub you may release more histamine into the eye that leads to more red watery and itchy eyes you want to make sure that you wash your hands when you go back inside if you've been outside of course if you struggle with the itchy eyes you probably have little bottles of those drops everywhere in your car purse gym bag wherever you can you know when I feel bad with allergy issues I'm much more apt
to go to the store and buy a brand name drug thinking it's going to help me more than a generic but the consumer experts say save your money myth number one name brand drugs work better than generics there's really no difference there's no um necessarily any benefit to getting a name brand um over a generic it's it's the same drug so you should expect the same results on to myth number two a nasal spray is a nasal spray all right let's look at this there are nasal steroid sprays and nasal decon
gestant sprays they may look and kind of sound alike but they're not for the N nasal steroid sprays um they definitely recommend you know giving those a few days up to a couple of weeks those are going to you know reduce swelling in your nasal passageways generally the decongestant sprays are not recommended for more than a couple of days um because those can create rebound congestion so make sure you're reading labels very carefully and finally for myth number three Bagless vacuums are better f
or allergy sufferers before we even answer that let me just answer the question that you're thinking how often should you be vacuuming once or twice a week picking one with a bag not one of the ones that you empty yourself because that that emptying the canister kind of creates another puff a puff of dust as you empty it well what Consumer Reports couldn't say was which allergy medicine works best and that's because really everyone's different it's really just trial and error but there is a wron
g way and a right way to treat your seasonal allergies with the over-the-counter drugs to get better results you need to start taking that allergy medicine like algra or Claritin early on they build Effectiveness slowly same goes for those antihistamines and again you can try that saline nose spray but nose and throat doctors say you don't want to overuse those or symptoms can actually get worse well two wants to know did get Consumer Reports to give us a few more ways to help your allergies whi
le you're at home move your shower to bedtime I know a lot of people use the shower to wake up but this helps to wash the pollen off and you're not laying around with it in your bed breathing it all night long your pet brings in pollen in their fur do not let them sleep in your bed or really even in your bedroom they're just traveling pollen puff balls and speaking of those furry family members they can have allergy issues as well here's what allergies often look and sound like in our pets there
's two really syndromes we see with dogs with allergies um either respiratory kind of component or an itchy kind of component with dogs that are allergic to Cedars pollin and grasses and molds and even fleas Dr Olga heimes from for paaw Animal Hospital says with breathing the sound is fairly noticeable we can either see the respiratory uh side which is a reverse sneezing kind of syndrome where they do this wee gas this is what the reverse sneeze sounds like some of the signs your pet may have al
lergies include excessive scratching biting and licking inflamed and infected skin excessive shedding chronic ear infections and those respiratory issues the dogs that are itching because of allergies is called atopic dermatitis and and it's an it's caused by inhalent um irritants like allergies like to pollins grasses and molds well there are things that you can do to reduce allergies in your pets adapt your daily walk or routine to avoid those early mornings and those late afternoons because t
hat is when pollen is the highest regularly change your air filters to cut down on those Airborne allergens and wash their fur with a hypoallergenic anti-itch shampoo you can also try a natural dietary supplement like fish oil Omega-3s or omega-6 oil to help reduce the itchiness and improve their overall skin Health all right finally let's dig further into keeping your homes air clean cuz that's all part of we're going to focus in on one of those recommendations that we just talked about that's
your air filters the duct work that carries the Heat or air through the house they're kind of like our lungs if we want to breathe easy we need to know what kind of air filters we have and how we need to change them this is a HVAC furnace filter um you can see it's you know it's got this uh reinforcement here but it's almost transparent you can kind of see through it and that kind of speaks to the quality of the filtration how much all right so if you missed any of our dig into it you can rewatc
h it on our website wfmynews2.com
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