Why Are My Allergies So Bad in My House

Did you know that one out of every five Americans has an allergy to either/both indoor and outdoor allergens? These allergens when you are exposed to them in an environment, whether that be inside of a home or outside in your yard, will provoke various allergenic symptoms that will overtake a person’s body during the time of exposure. What can you do when these allergy symptoms take place persistently inside of your home, and are there solutions to removing indoor allergens from a confined indoor air space?

In this article we are going to learn more about why your allergies may be severe inside of your home, understand the reason behind allergies in the human body, and how to get rid of allergies from inside your home. 

What is an Allergen

Everybody knows what allergies are, but when it comes to breaking down the actual mechanics of what causes allergies and their symptoms in the human body there will be many gaps. To understand how allergies work or develop inside of a person, you first will need to comprehend the underlying cause of allergies, which are allergens. According to AAAAI, allergens are usually considered as harmless substances that when they enter into the human body will trigger a response that originates in the immune system and will produce an allergic reaction (allergy symptoms). When this reaction is elicited in the body’s immune system, it will also trigger the production of antibodies called IgE that works to defend your body against the allergen.

Some of the most common allergens, that most people are aware of will include dust, dust mites, pet dander, mold, pollen, etc. These various allergens can be produced in both indoor and outdoor environments, depending on the specific allergen, and no matter where the allergen is created it can easily be spread from different environments through the air – thus, the reason behind seasonal allergy symptoms inside of your home.

How Do Allergies Work

When it comes to the human body and how it is impacted by exposure to an allergen in the environment, there will be a chain reaction that will take place within both the immune system and the respiratory system of these affected individuals. The human body’s immune system takes on the role as a protector or shield for a person’s health, specifically protecting them from foreign invaders that may try to enter into the body. Whenever an outside substance finds its way within the body, the immune system will be responsible for determining whether the substance is good for your body or if it is a potential threat to the body and health of an individual. As the substance enters into the body and is deemed to be a threat, the immune system will trigger and produce antibodies that will immediately attach to the harmful cells. In addition, these antibodies will also signal other cells to attack or destroy the invader (aka the allergen).

Once the immune system responds to the allergen in the body and releases the antibodies to attach to the harmful cells, the immune system will additionally release histamines. Histamines are chemicals that our bodies produce naturally, and these chemicals when faced with allergen exposure will be the chemical responsible for provoking the well-known allergy symptoms associated with allergies such as sneezing, itchy nose or eyes, runny nose, and watery eyes, according to WebMD.

Why Are My Allergies So Bad Right Now?

Have you begun to notice that each allergy season you are faced with more challenges and a longer bout of symptoms that will take over your body during the entire season? According to expert’s allergy season has progressively worsened over the years making it more and more severe on allergy sufferers, and one of the main impacts on this growing issue is that of climate change. The Minnesota Department of Health found that in their region and changing climate that allergy sufferers near this area have been experiencing longer allergy seasons than ever before. Ragweed pollen season, in particular, is now 18 to 21 days longer than it was back in the 1990’s.

Did you know that each ragweed plant lives only throughout one season, but it can produce up to 1 billion pollen grains in the environment? These exuberant amount of pollen grains can easily become airborne and travel throughout the air, into other environments including indoor spaces like your home. If you feel as though you are experiencing severe allergies it is best to take a look at pollen maps to get a gauge on the specific pollen levels in your area and region.

How Long is the Pollen Allergy Season

The dreaded allergy season is a time of year that many people try to hide from without prevail, and as we learned previously allergy season has only become more severe and longer which can be a nightmare for allergy/asthma sufferers. Allergy season can strive nearly anywhere at any time, depending on the region you live in and the time of year when the different pollen is produced into the environment. Typically, seasonal allergies or hay fever will occur in late winter or spring. Whereas ragweed pollen will be produced during the summer and fall seasons. However, this schedule of pollen creation does not dictate the allergy levels in the environment, as some allergens can be year-round offenders and affect a person’s allergies sporadically throughout the year as exposure occurs.

When talking about pollen allergy season, in particular, there are several influences that can influence the months it falls within and the duration of the season. Climate change, as we discussed earlier, can have a direct hand at triggering allergy season earlier and making the season last longer.

Is Everyone Allergic to Seasonal Pollen

Seasonal allergies will be caused mainly by pollen and the different types of pollen that are produced in the outdoor environment during certain seasons of the year. However, when it comes to the production of seasonal pollen is everyone allergic to these allergenic substance in the air? According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI), nearly 8 percent of adults in the United States will experience hay fever or pollen allergies. Those individuals who suffer from seasonal pollen allergies are unlikely to go away once it develops, but there are remedies to alleviating these symptoms such as medication, allergy shots, and air quality products.

When it comes to pollen allergies, there are hundreds of plant species that will produce specific pollens into the air, triggering an allergic reaction. The best way to determine which types of pollen you are allergic to, if any, is to visit a dermatologist and have an allergy prick test be conducted on yourself – which will alert you to which allergens you are allergic to when you are exposed to it in an environment.

How to Relieve Indoor Allergies

The outdoor allergens that are created and produced outside during allergy season such as pollen will have an easy transition into a home through the air, allowing the indoor environment to become infiltrated with these pesky allergy-provoking allergens. When these allergens find their way into the air space of your personal indoor environments, it will immediately start a reaction in those individuals who suffer from allergies and thus become a reoccurring issue when exposed to these various allergens in their indoor air. Home’s and other indoor environments already have a constant battle of allergen exposure from indoor allergens such as dust, pet dander, and even mold spores – and with the added component of outdoor allergens like pollen in this air it can leave the environment further compromised and stir up allergy symptoms.

What can be done to relieve indoor allergies when they become too severe to handle? Will the helpful aid of medication take away the symptoms or maybe even strategically placed air quality solutions to help combat and remove these pesky allergens from the indoor air – or the combination of the too. Below we are going to discuss the best home remedies to use for allergy season and learn more about the benefits of using air quality solutions in your home.

Home Remedies for Allergies Seasonal

The inside safe space of your home is something that people fight not to be compromised, however, when it comes to allergy season the tainting of this indoor air is unfortunately inevitable. Implementing certain remedies into the indoor environment of your home will be beneficial to alleviating and combating allergen accumulation in the air space of this confined space and/or allergy symptoms from furthering in this environment. When we talk about home remedies to use to help relieve seasonal allergies, some of the most highly used solutions include the following, according to Healthline;

• Honey: When you are sick did your mom or dad always give you some honey to ease your symptoms? Well my mom did, and although honey does not have scientific evidence to back its healing abilities, it has been believed to help lower your allergic reaction symptoms over time.
• Vitamin C: Healthcare professionals have suggested that taking 2,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily is good for reducing histamine levels during allergy season. Therefore, it is an easy fix and sometimes solution to allergy problems.
• Essential Oils: Essential oils have been shown to have natural healing effects, particularly peppermint and eucalyptus essential oils. Peppermint oil has anti-inflammatory effects that will reduce symptoms of bronchial asthma and allergic rhinitis. Whereas eucalyptus oil works as an antimicrobial agent that can be added to each load of wash during allergy season.
• HEPA Filtration & Air Purifiers: HEPA filters and filtration is among the most well-known for combating and removing allergens from the air, helping to improve the air for those who suffer from asthma and allergies. This type of filtration is designed specifically to remove fine allergenic substances from the air such as dust, pollen, and pet dander, just to name a few.

Air Purifier for Allergies

If you have ever tried to look personally for an air purifier for your home, whether that be to remove odors, various airborne pollution from the air, or even to help mitigate allergens and allergy symptoms in your home, you will find that the options of different air purifiers on the market is endless. Air purifiers will all be different and contain different filtration methods, technologies, sizes, and square foot coverage ability – therefore, when you are looking to purchase an air purifier it is important to consider all of these factors to make sure that you find one that fits all your indoor air quality needs. When it comes to finding an air purifier specifically for allergies you will want to look for an air purifier that contains a quality grade filter that is capable of removing fine particulate matter like allergens from the air, such as a HEPA filter.

The EnviroKlenz Air Purifier is a revolutionary air purification device that not only confronts and remove noxious and toxic chemicals and odors through their patented earth mineral technology, but also have the capability to remove fine particulate matter like allergens through the use of a hospital-grade HEPA filter. The EnviroKlenz earth mineral technology was designed to be a safe, nontoxic solution to capturing, containing, and neutralizing a variety of airborne chemicals and odors from the air completely. In addition to this advanced technology, EnviroKlenz placed an additional filtration stage within their air purifier that consists of a hospital-grade HEPA filter that will filter out fine particulate matter larger than 0.3 microns in size at a 99.99 percent efficiency. This dual-filtration capability provided in the EnviroKlenz Air Purifier makes for an effective air quality solution within your personal indoor environments.

Article Sources:

1. American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI): Allergen Definition (link)
2. WebMD: What are Histamines? (link)
3. Minnesota Department of Health: As Pollen Seasons Expand, So Does the Opportunity for Patient Education (link)
4. American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology (AAAAI): Allergy Statistics (link)
5. Healthline: 15 Home Remedies for Allergies (link)