Photo: WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Allergy season is already packing a punch with runny and stuffy noses, itchy eyes, and other symptoms.
If you are wondering why your allergies are coming out of hibernation early this year, April Kalinga knows where to point the finger.
"So the reason why patients are experiencing allergy symptoms a little bit earlier this year is because we’ve truly had a very mild winter," Kalinga told WBZ NewsRadio Friday. "We didn’t have as cold of a winter, and the spring that we’ve had, this early spring season, we’ve seen a lot more rain than usual."
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Kalinga is a pharmacist at a CVS store in Franklin. She said less snow during the winter months, the rainy start to spring, and higher pollen counts this time of year have made for a perfect storm for early allergy annoyances.
During the spring, the main allergens come from tree pollen, including oak, birch, walnut, cedar, elm, and maple. Later in the fall, it will be grasses and weed pollen making people sniffle.
Allergy medications can help alleviate symptoms, but Kalinga said sometimes people do not feel like their medication is working as well as it should.
"Our bodies can perhaps become a little tolerant to a therapy that we’ve been on for a long time, so it’s common for a pharmacist to recommend to their patients to consider switching up their regiment," Kalinga explained.
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