Achoo!!! Am I sick?
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Many of you have been calling recently, thinking that you’ve been sick.
Seems like the whole Florida has been sick lately! Well, good news! It’s not a crazy bacteria and it’s probably not a crazy virus. Flu season is actually on its way out. Last month, we have all the crazy virus coming around. Now, we have the pollen. I’m sure you have seen the collection of pollen on your cars. I’m sure you’re all sneezing, coughing, runny nose, feeling like you’re coming down with something. But be careful, just because you’re feeling sick, it does not mean that you need an antibiotic.
So, remember, let’s do a little bit of education. For starters, about 95% of all upper respiratory infections in adults (so whether that’s a cough with bronchitis, an ear infection, sinus infections) are viral. Antibiotics do not kill viruses. You probably don’t need an antibiotic. And now, with all the pollen we have floating around, the majority of what’s going around right now is actually allergies.
The majority of people that come in don’t actually know they even have allergies. Because allergies typically are not present from when you were born. Just like the peanut allergy that closes up your throat and then you end up in the hospital. It just happens. So, this might be the year that you start having allergies.
Right now, allergies especially in Tampa Bay is very bad because we have oaks, junipers and elm blooming all over the place. And unfortunately, out of all the eleven species of oaks that we have in the area, they all happen to start blooming at the exact same time this year. So, it’s really bad.
The one question that I get is — “How do I know this is an infection? How do I know this is just allergies?”
Typically, with an infection, you’ll get at least low-grade fever. With allergies, you typically do not. You typically get a lot of muscle aches or myalgia with viral infections. With allergies, you don’t get those either.
So, if you’re having these issues, go to your drugstore. Try Claritin, Allegra or Zyrtec. It seems like everybody has got their favorite allergy medication that works best for them. So, if you’ve been on Claritin for example, for years and it’s not working this year, try something else. Try Allegra, or try a different type of allergy medication.
There are some natural things that you can do to help cope with this. These aren’t necessarily replacements for the over-the-counter allergy medications, especially when pollen is this bad, but they can help augment things. And these are Quercetin and Stinging Neddles. They will help with the allergies. They decrease the histamine response.
Typically, it takes anywhere from two to four weeks for something like this to start getting better. Because that’s how long it takes for pollen counts to start decreasing. So don’t expect this to get better overnight.
Now if you’re having symptoms, if you’re having shortness of breath, fever, especially high-grade fevers that aren’t going away, then do go and get examined by your physician.
So everyone, I hope you’re feeling better. Stay inside. Don’t air out your house at this time.
Have a good day!
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