Bad news, allergy sufferers: harsh end to winter may mean terrible pollen this spring

Now that the warmer weather has finally started to spread across Canada after such a long and harsh winter, it's a great time to get out and shake off the cabin fever. However, the respite may be short-lived for anyone who suffers from seasonal allergies.

With the punishing winter weather that Canada and the United States endured for the latter half of winter, and how long that cold clung to both countries as we finally advanced into spring, the plants that have been eagerly awaiting springs arrival are now set to fill the air with pollen. There's nothing strange about that, of course. It happens every spring. However, plants typically have a specific time that they pollinate — an 'alarm clock' of sorts that goes off when there's a certain number of hours of sunlight in the day. If the temperature is too cold, though, this basically hits the 'snooze' on this alarm until it warms up, and that's what's happening now. The later start to the warmer weather means that plants that would have been pollinating earlier have been snoozing, and now they're going to start when all the other plants' 'alarms' are also going off.

"We're going to get a huge blast of warm air and [the trees] are going to essentially create 40 times the amount of pollen in the air in a few days," microbiologist Jason Tetro told CTV News.

Overall, it's likely to mean a shorter pollen season, but a much worse one for anyone who has to deal with the allergies that come with it.

There are several ways to prepare yourself for what's to come and to limit the impact it has on you. If you're someone who also suffers from indoor allergies (dust mites, pets), your immune system may already be ready to 'go off' when the pollen starts filling the air, so you may need to take extra precautions and measures (and apparently dust mite covers for pillows and mattresses don't work as well as they're supposed to).

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Avoidance is probably the most effective method. Stay inside as much as possible on particularly bad days, keep doors and windows shut and possibly use pollen screens in the furnace and over windows to keep the pollen out. Air conditioning tends to help. Salt-water nasal sprays and rinses can help wash pollen out of your sinuses, to at least reduce the allergic reaction if you've been outside. Tetro's advice to CTV News was that taking vitamin D, anti-histamines, anti-inflammatories and eating some fermented foods can help, as can immunotherapy treatments (allergy shots).

Exactly what the pollen count will be is going to depend on what part of the country you live in and the local weather. You can check out your local pollen report on The Weather Network's website.

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

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