Tips for Enjoying an Allergy Free Holiday Season
by Kim Lance
Description: Tips for alleviating your allergies during the holiday season.
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While the winter may not be the first season you associate with
allergies, there is prevalence for specific allergies present during this
time. Items characteristic of the holidays can bring about unexpected
allergic reactions.
Allergic to Christmas Trees
While they may look beautiful sitting front and center in your living
room during the month of December, your Christmas tree may be
contributing to your hay fever or allergic skin condition.
The pollen from Evergreens themselves does not typically cause an
allergic reaction. Due to its thick, waxy outer coating, evergreen pollens
cannot easily travel through the air and into your nose to trigger and
allergy attack, but both real and artificial Christmas trees can
contribute to allergies in other ways.
“The accumulation of dust and mold on artificial Christmas trees that
are used year after year can become a serious problem for allergy
sufferers,” says Joe Tracy, editor of Sinus News at http://www.sinusnews.com.
Real trees may also act as a source for mold or may carry pollens from
other sources such as ragweed. Real trees also produce a resin that can
be a possible source for airborne irritants that can aggravate or
ignite an allergic reaction. Also, tree sap can cause an allergic rash in
rare instances.
The American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology has suggested
the following techniques to help reduce your likelihood of an allergic
reaction due to an artificial or real Christmas tree:
- Wipe your artificial tree clean with a cloth
- Take a real tree outside and spray it with a garden hose to remove
pollens. Put the stump of he tree in a bucket of water while the rest of
the tree air-dries in the garage. Store the tree in a sealed plastic
casing before displaying.
- Wear gloves during the handling of the tree to keep sap away from the
skin.
- Wipe off ornaments and lights gently to remove dust and mold.
Hidden Food Allergies During the Holidays
Along with the possible allergy to your holiday decorations, you have a
larger chance of accidentally ingesting food you may be allergic to
over the holidays because of the numerous homemade treats available. The
most common foods that can trigger an allergic reaction are milk, eggs,
legumes such as peanuts, and tree nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts,
pecans, and walnut, according to the AAAAI.
“Even a small bit of the wrong food can cause an intense allergic
reaction to someone with food allergies,” says Kim Lance of the Allergy
Prevention Center. “So many new foods come out at Christmas time like
eggnog, fruitcake, and roasted chestnuts that it’s important for a food
allergy sufferer to use extra caution.”
A hidden allergy may also be lurking in unexpected foods due to
previous allergenic foods in contact with storage containers, baking sheets,
and utensils.
When avoidance is not possible, using an antihistamine before eating
holiday treats may reduce the severity of a reaction, but it is best to
have on hand self-injectable epinephrine, prescribed by an allergist.
Enjoy the holiday season, but if you suspect you are allergic to
certain foods make sure you visit your allergist and take extra caution when
enjoying the treats of the season.
SinusNews.com is the leading sinus health newsletter,
delivering the latest educational information on sinus infections,
allergies, and asthma directly to every subscriber's email box twice a
month and free of charge.
The Allergy Prevention Center is an in-depth educational online
resource for allergy sufferers. The purpose of the Allergy Prevention Center
is to present the latest allergy research, articles, news, and safety
alerts for allergy sufferers in an easy and useful format.
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