Spring Allergy Problems

Pollen Allergy Problems by Jane Thurnell-Read

How early in the year can pollen problems appear? Even in February in Europe and America some plants are already in flower. These can casue allergy problems in sensitive poeple. Most people associate pollen allergy problems with the summer, but spring pollen allergies are very comon too.

Many people assume the plants that cause the problems are the ones with large flamboyant flowers, but this is not true. The large, colourful flowers rely on pollination by bees and other insects, so the pollen is usually sticky, relatively heavy and does not travel far in the air. It is the small, insignificant plants that rely on wind pollination for their microscopic pollen that cause most problems. This very light pollen can travel many miles on the wind.These pollens are less than 10 micrometres in size, and can easily be inhaled deep into the lungs.

At Life-Work Potential we offer two different test kits containing pollen: Pollen, Dust and Mould Test Kit and Pollens Etc. 2 Test Kit. These are popular and useful kits for anyone who uses kinesiology or EAV procedures, but I also suggest that, if you do allergy testing, you start a pollen jar.

This is a collection of your local pollens: you collect anything in flower starting now and continuing throughout the year. Take one flower from the plant and pop it into the jar. Do not put the lid on the jar, otherwise you will end up with a slimy mess - useful for testing, but not a good test for pollens! Collect flowers from garden plants, grasses, weeds, trees and shrubs. If possible, also collect flowers from local parks and agricultural crops. Remember the most problematic pollens are the most nondescript, so you need to pay attention to the small and inconspicuous plants that may not even appear at first sight to be in flower.

Next year do the same thing again, so that you have a jar with last year's pollen and a fresh jar with current pollen. At the end of that year throw away this year's pollen and start to collect pollen for 2007. This way you will always have a rather old but comprehensive pollen jar, and a new but incomplete pollen jar. With time the flowers become dry and all look alike, but I have always found that I can still use them for testing.