By Joe Hadsall

jhadsall@joplinglobe.com

Sorry, folks. It’s coming. Not even the nasty cold winter that Joplin suffered could suppress all the pollen that’s getting ready to fill the air.

Allergy season is near.

Dr. David Straub, of Allergy and Immunology Inc., will be able to tell exactly when allergy season arrives — the number of patients walking into his office will increase, he said.

“We get a bump in the spring,” Straub said. “We’ll see an increase in visits mainly for hay fever type problems from now until about mid-June.”

In addition to all the pollen that the Ozarks’ hickory and oak trees are expelling, the air is filled with molds. All it takes for mold to grow is moisture and warmth, and this area has plenty, Straub said.

Be prepared for runny noses, sneezes, coughs and wheezes, and keep your stash of facial tissues and allergy meds nearby. But parents should take the additional step of checking their kids for the same thing — especially their younger children, because the symptoms of allergies are settling in much earlier in a child’s life than they used to.



Early onset

Dr. Joseph Mayo, a pediatrician with McCune-Brooks Hospital in Carthage, has seen patients since the mid-’70s. He’s seen firsthand how allergies are showing up in kids much younger than 5 or 6 years old.

“Following my own practice within the pediatric population, I’m seeing a greater number of allergies,” Mayo said. “If we were seeing symptoms to address at 6, 7, 8 or 9 years old, now we are seeing them sometimes at 6 months.”

There’s not really an ironclad reason why, he said, but allergy professionals think it might have something to do with our ultra-clean society. Our ability to kill contaminants like never before has reduced our immune system’s exposure to those contaminants, making the body more susceptible to them — or so the theory goes.

No matter what the cause is, Mayo said parents should be more aware of their kids during this allergy season.

“If a kid is chronically congested, if their eyes are dark like they’ve been in a boxing match, it can be from allergies,” Mayo said. “There may be ways to control or prevent other complications from them.”



Treatments

All the adults who have suffered from allergies year after year have their preferred methods of relief, Straub said. Maybe it’s medicine, maybe it’s staying locked in a hermetically-sealed house.

There’s no way to ultimately predict what kind of torture an allergy sufferer will endure, he said.

“All those projections are like predicting the Super Bowl,” Straub said. “It always comes down to an individual’s response.”

He said that as humans age, their immune systems weaken. That means allergies appear to diminish; they still exist but the body can’t overreact like it used to.

Until then, people seek relief with antihistamines, masks and other solutions.

Straub said there are not a lot of new products on the market to help allergy sufferers. A new nasal steroid with the generic name of ciclesonide has shown some promise of being more effective, he said, and those who hate masks over their face might find some use in thin membranes that fit over the nostrils.

Other than that, people should stick with what works for them, Straub said.

“A patient needs to decide which works best,” Straub said. “Some medicines cause drowsiness, others don’t, that kind of thing.”

He said those with more aggressive allergies may consider immunotherapy, to help the body build up a tolerance. The field has seen considerable progress over the past few years, he said.

“The injections we use today have much better antigens, for better efficacy,” Straub said. “We start with a microscopic dose and gradually boost it to develop an immunity.”

Don’t expect instant relief, however. Immunotherapy can take two to five years to be truly effective, he said.