In Central Texas, pollen doesn’t fool around. Our allergy seasons are intense, and ragweed season peaks here in late summer and early fall.
Unfortunately, ragweed — with its hairy leaves — grows extravagantly in our area and produces abundant pollen that travels easily through the air.
This is a recipe for misery for the nearly 50 million people in the US with ragweed allergy symptoms. But since allergy symptoms can be confused with those of a cold or sinus infection, how do you determine whether your discomfort is due to ragweed or something else?
The talented and sensitive providers at the Allergy and Asthma Clinic of Central Texas are invested in easing and eliminating your ragweed-related symptoms for the long term. They can also provide you with helpful education about ragweed so you don’t suffer in vain, believing you just have a persistent cold.
We’re going to go over hay fever symptoms caused by ragweed that, if you experience them, should be addressed by visiting your Allergy and Asthma Clinic of Central Texas provider promptly.
If you’re tired and it just doesn’t let up — no matter how much sleep you get — and ragweed season is in full swing, you might be coping with one of the most debilitating symptoms of this type of allergy.
It’s hard to have much ambition to do anything if your get-up-and-go left a long time ago!
Is your nose endlessly running? If you’ve invested way too much money in keeping tissues at your side everywhere you go, this is another sign of a pesky ragweed allergy.
This aggravating allergy symptom involves a mucus surplus dripping down through the back of your throat — the farthest thing from fun you can imagine, right?
It can make you want to clear your throat and cough constantly, and may even lead to nausea because of mucus entering your stomach. Postnasal drip, unfortunately, may also cause you to have bad breath.
These ragweed allergy symptoms are also linked to the development of ear infections.
We talked about how allergy-associated postnasal drip causes you to cough, but ragweed allergy symptoms can also exacerbate asthma and cause wheezing and coughing.
Ragweed can cause you to sneeze relentlessly. These sneezing fits can be exhausting, especially when combined with other symptoms.
It’s hard to resist the temptation to rub your eyes when ragweed pollen causes them to itch like crazy, but you can actually do damage to your eyes if you rub or scratch them too vigorously.
If you’ve experienced an uptick in headaches, the cause may not be tension or dehydration. This is also a ragweed allergy symptom.
When you’re dealing with this mixture of symptoms, you need immediate relief, and we can help.
After administering either a skin prick or blood test to confirm that you have a ragweed allergy, your provider can create a customized care plan for you that may include over-the-counter allergy medications, nasal or oral corticosteroids, allergy shots, allergy tablets applied under your tongue, and medications containing antihistamines.
You may also benefit from nasal sprays to help with congestion and postnasal drip, as well as soothing eye drops to relieve itchiness.
We also counsel you on things you can do at home to minimize your exposure to ragweed pollen. These include being mindful of when you go outside, changing clothing and showering after coming in from being outside, and using a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air)-certified air filter in your home.
Don’t allow ragweed to stop you in your tracks and drain the joy from your life. Get treatment as soon as possible so you can enjoy your favorite activities — and the great outdoors — again.
Contact our Georgetown, Killeen, or Round Rock, Texas, office to schedule an appointment, or use our convenient online booking tool.
