A Season for Disease'n | The Truth About Seasonal Allergies

Every fall you need a new flu shot. Every spring, you're sneezing and congested. Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring. Every new season brings new...diseases. Learn about what's going on with this phenomenon in a new SciShow episode with Stefan Chin!

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Original Episodes:

[icannotchoose]

I don't always click right away for SciShow because I have a busy schedule, but that title is so silly, I had to click right away. You win this round SciShow.

[MarkKeller]

During a heavy pollen alert I went outside at night with a flashlight on a whim, I was amazed at just how thick the pollen was in the air. I could watch it move with the air currents ... it was surreal.

[joelmathew]

Can you guys make a video on
"Developing allergies later in life"

[WeWouldRather]

"It'll soon be Summer here in the Northern Hemisphere"

IF THIS DAILY 100+ DEGREE HELL ISN'T SUMMER, PLEASE KILL ME NOW.

[loryndabenson]

Ragweeds are actually very good for the soil by reducing heavy metals and chemicals from pesticides, and you can reduce your allergy to them by eating small amounts of it(unless you're like SUPER allergic, like touching the plant gives you hives or an asthma attack or something). They're also very effective against bug bites and stings. I use them for mosquito bites myself by rubbing on my skin which in turn makes me have less reaction to ragweed pollen surprisingly. They're actually very cool plants.

[Varizen]

While we're on the topic of Seasonal Allergies... Cheddar has a great video on one of the factors caused by landscape designers in the US that makes this FAR worse. Thanks to Dutch Elm Disease, a lot of trees in the US died 100 years ago, and when landscapers were choosing what trees to replace them with some years later there was a debate on what sex of tree to use and male trees won out over female trees. This was decided because female trees fruit, which people thought would be a nuisance and in some cases like the Ginkgo tree, the tree smells absolutely vile. But here's the irony... female trees don't fruit unless they're exposed to pollen from male trees.... Meanwhile... Male trees release pollen no matter what... And most of the trees you see in city landscapes are male. Cheddar's video goes into far more depth.

[doubtingthomas]

Hi, I love your channel and videos. As a Science teacher I use a lot of your videos with my classes.
I can't fault your science, but your geography needs a little work.
As an Australian, and more specifically a Victorian I can tell you that Brisbane is in the state of Queensland not Victoria like you mentioned in the Viruses section of the video.
Apart from this minor and picky error I love your work, thanks for all you do

[svenmorgenstern]

Really liked Hank's hands turning green mid-pontification. 👍

[andyhaochizhang]

What Hank didn’t mention is that because itches from bug bites is an allergy reaction, you can be desensitized to it. Some researchers who raise mosquitoes in labs feed the mosquitoes their own blood and become desensitized. Some rangers/people who work in mosquito-heavy natural areas are also desensitized to the local mosquitoes. However, de-sensitivity would take a huge amount of bites to develop and probably a lot of regular bites to maintain, so it’s not really a solution to most of us normal people who get merely a few hundred/dozen bites every season.

[theflyingdutchguy]

i love spring because its the best time for nature. but my allergies really screw that up. when my pollen allergy triggers i get almost every symptom you can possibly get. i know its coming when my chest and diophrame start heating up and i start to breath heavy and everything starts to itch

[EmilyJelassi]

I'm allergic to grass pollen and severely allergic to bees and mushrooms. It's like the bees know.. they always circle my head. And I'm a magnet for mosquitoes. I could take a bath in DEET and they'd still find me on Pluto 🙁

[bobbobber]

I am lucky. I do have seasonal allergy but it is really minor.
I just sniffle and sneeze a little more. Annoying but pretty tolerable.
Wearing a mask also seems to reduce them even more.

I am really sorry for those with heavy seasonal allergy.

[christaverduren]

Spring- trees and grasses / Summer- ragweed / Autumn (after first killer frost)- FREE !!!! / Winter- Dust mite poo/ mold spores/ just overall dusty stuffy air.
I tried shots for several years and while I was getting 'better' if I missed one session i felt worse. So I just stopped and take allergy meds 2 times a day.

[sukai]

I don’t have any allergies; I’d love to know why (my parents don’t have any). Could you guys do an episode on why some people have, for example, peanut allergies, pollen allergies, etc. and some don’t? Does it have anything to do with neonatal exposure or parental genes? Which allergies are genetic vs from an outside source? I’m super curious! Everyone I know that has allergies so do their biological parents. Is it mostly genes?

[gaillewis]

Landscapers also had the idea to plant only male trees, so an insane amount of pollen is released when they bloom. What the hell were they thinking?

[ki]

My eyes literally feel like they’re burning whenever my allergies start

[rachelwoodcraft]

Fun fact: I've developed nerve disruption in half my hand (possibly Carpel Tunnel). The other day, I was attacked by horse flies and was bitten multiple times on my legs, and once on my hand where the nerves aren't working properly. The bites on my legs swelled and itched and were really painful. The bite on my nerve damaged hand felt weird, but didn't itch, nor did it swell. So somehow my nerves have affected how my body has responded to the horse fly bite...

[bengoodchild]

This is terrifying when you consider the mental health implications that allergies have. We might end up needing a proper allergy "cure" rather than simply treating symptoms in the vast majority of people.

[Daniel_leading_the__Plateans]

Season for diseas'n bum de bum bum bum bum bum de da da de da da

[kerryday]

The Ragweed Apocalypse has started in Ontario already (first week of August). Usually it's okay until the end of the month or early September. And it's going to be really bad this year, the plants are everywhere.