Record high pollen explosion has many seeking remedies

ATLANTA — Thursday’s pollen count at 2,924, is the highest it has been so far this year with tree pollen in the extremely high range.

Pollen from pine trees is the reason your car might be sporting a coat of yellow, but it's the pollen you can't see that's sending allergy sufferers to doctors' waiting  rooms.

One of those patients is Jennifer Koczor, who moved to Atlanta from the Rocket City, Huntsville, Alabama. What she wasn't ready for were her sky-rocketing allergy symptoms.

When over-the-counter meds didn't help, Koczor called Dr. Karen Hoffmann with Piedmont Ear, Nose, Throat & Related Allergy for testing. She was tested for 36 different allergens, including a variety of tree, grass and weed pollens, animals, dust and feathers. Once she knew exactly to what she was allergic, a serum was created just for her.

“With allergy drops or shots, we give them the things to which they're allergic, but in very very small doses, so that your body makes blocking antibodies. So when the pollen count is 3,000 and it looks like it's snowing yellow, then you won't be as symptomatic,” explains Dr. Hoffmann.

Koczor started noticing improvement within months. “I'm allergic to cats and I've noticed a big improvement overall, especially at home,” she says.

If you're suffering solely in the spring, Dr. Hoffmann recommends eating local honey but warns that it won’t help with household allergens like dust or mold.

“It may help with some of your springtime allergies, because that's when we get tree pollen, grass and weed. And it tastes good,” she says.

Another homeopathic remedy that can help alleviate symptoms is a saline or salt-water rinse to clean out dust, pollen, mold and irritants out of the nose and help people breathe a whole lot better.

Meteorologist Katie Walls looked at pollen data going back seven years. Traditionally, when pollen counts have spiked in March, pollen counts drop significantly in April.

Cox Media Group