Allergies: Worse Than Ever?
Dec 28, 2015
One of the sadly predictable byproducts of climate change is an increase in extreme or aberrant weather events. From floods to tornadoes, such incidents have been rising slowly for many years. But some other effects of climate change are subtler, including the extended warm seasons that can spell greater suffering for people with allergies.
This warm holiday season has been a tough time for many people whose seasonal rhinitis typically ebbs in the winter: more patients than ever are complaining of respiratory difficulties and sinus pain. The situation is especially dire on the eastern seaboard:
“I’m seeing patients with allergic rhinitis that I typically wouldn’t see,” says Dr. Stella Lee, an assistant professor of otolaryngology, head and neck surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. “Around this time of year we would normally have had snow and our first frost. But with the unseasonably warm weather we’re having a persistence of mold and a lot of patients are having problems with it.”
LA has had some unusual cold snaps, which can affect people in similar ways, seesawing between climates and pressures on a weekly basis. That’s why we are sounding the alarm for anyone whose pain has persisted for several weeks to come in and visit with the expert ENT team at LASI today. To learn more, call or email us hee.