Get ready for a bad allergy season. According to a pollen count from the Midwest this week, ragweed is already on the rise. This is at least a week earlier than usual. Hay fever is usually related to the amount of ragweed pollen in the environment and can last from mid-August through the first hard frost in October. Having pollen counts soar at the beginning of August suggests that many allergy sufferers are in for a lot of misery this year.
[Gottlieb Allergy Count, Aug 4, 2014]
The People’s Pharmacy take on this is that allergy sufferers should do what they can to protect themselves: stay in air-conditioned living spaces, wash hair and clean sinuses with a neti pot or saline spray daily, and stock up on the medicines that work for them. There is a new way to be desensitized from ragweed pollen that doesn’t require shots. Unfortunately, however, the sublingual Ragwitek tablets must be taken daily for three months before allergy season starts, and then during the season. With ragweed pollen already detectable, Ragwitek is really not an option for this year. If you want to try it next year, save your shekels: the drug is roughly $10 a pill.
