Dr. Sandra Fryhofer - Your Health Matters - Pollen Nation - Allergies

Spring and pollen are in the air.

You know the miseries: watery, itchy eyes, sneezing, tickly throat .
And when your nose gets stopped up, the snoring can wake YOU up.

Allergies are usually triggered by something like pollen, or pet dander. Your immune system over reacts to the irritants, and releases chemicals like histamines and leukotrienes; they irritate the lining of your respiratory tract, and cause these symptoms.

Your Health Matters with Dr. Sandra Fryhofer is a weekly series offering useful and timely information on health and well-being.

Sandra Adamson Fryhofer, MD, MACP, FRCP is a board certified doctor of internal medicine in Atlanta and Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. She is on staff at Piedmont Hospital.