Fall allergies hitting hard

Despite the drought, weeds are growing like crazy in our area. That’s bad news for allergy sufferers like Lisa Skinner who now has to get weekly allergy shots.

She says, “Its been bad.  I have the headache and runny nose the dry cough and watery eyes.”

This time of year we are moving from grass to weeds for the fall, according to Dr. Neil Kao with the Allergic Disease and Asthma Center, one of the biggest culprits in our area is ragweed.

He says, “You would think that with us having had drought that the pollen counts would be extraordinarily low, but that has not indeed been the case at all.”

He says on September 19th the pollen count in this area will be at its peak, so for those who have allergies you should start taking medication now.

Dr. Kao says, “Once the avalanche of their symptoms starts its just hard to catch up.”

The Greenville area is listed as the number two worst area in the country for fall allergies just behind Raleigh-Durham, according to the American Academy of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology. 

Lisa’s lived in other parts of the state and says she can believe it.

Lisa says, “We moved here and they are horrible.”

Dr. Kao says those with problems need to just hang on.

“It takes about another month to six weeks for it to slowly fall down.”

So those weeds will die off and people like Lisa can get some relief.