Asthma Awareness: Navigating the Shift into High Pollen Season

The Over-Eager Home Security System.

To understand why a few marauding grains of pollen make you feel like you’ve run a marathon in a sandstorm, we need to consider what happens when intruders enter the body. Consider the immune system a highly sensitive home security system. In a world that would ideally be in balance, the system would only sound the alarm at the presence of a true threat, like a nasty virus or dangerous bacteria.

However, in children and adults with Type 2-high asthma, the most common type of asthma, the system is set on a hair trigger. So when you breathe in a piece of completely harmless grass or tree pollen, the “alarmins” in the lungs – the system’s motion sensors – sound the alarm. Rather than ignoring the intruder, the system goes into a chain reaction of chemical signals, causing the airways to constrict, mucus to flood the “entryways,” and inflammation to occur. In 9 out of 10 children hospitalized with asthma who are sensitized to at least one allergen, the security system is in a state of panic mode the entire spring season.

The Heart-Pollen Handshake.

For years, we have believed that pollen activity remained in the “lobby” of the body, in the nose and lungs. However, recent studies have shown that the drama may have an impact on the heart. Scientists have found that there is a biological link between high pollen counts and acute coronary syndromes, which are events such as heart attacks.

While this is a little crazy, studies have shown that the inflammation in the lungs does not stay isolated. A study on patients undergoing heart procedures found that high levels of grass pollen two days before the procedure were linked to an increase in hospital deaths. This is because when the alarm goes off in the lungs, it goes off everywhere else in the body, putting additional pressure on the heart.

Thunderstorms and Pollen Bombs.

If you have ever experienced your breathing constricting at precisely the same moment when a springtime storm is brewing, you have not been mistaken. In fact, this is called “thunderstorm asthma” and is essentially a “pollen bomb.” In a thunderstorm, air currents carry whole pollen grains all the way up into the atmosphere. The humidity and moisture cause them to break apart into thousands of small, microscopic pieces.

When the downdrafts of the thunderstorm occur, all of this microscopic pollen is blown back down to ground level in large quantities. These small pollen pieces pass directly through the body’s natural filters in the nose and go all the way down into the lungs. In thunderstorm asthma cases, emergency room visits for asthma have increased by 2.7 times, and hospitalizations have increased by 16 times. If you see dark clouds rolling in during peak grass pollen season, it would be a good idea to stay indoors and fill your boots with some activities to do inside.

The “Pollen Hangover”.

But pollen doesn’t only make you wheeze and cough; it can also make you feel surprisingly sleepy. In fact, in a study done on people sensitive to ragweed pollen, an interesting correlation was found between pollen counts and daytime sleepiness. However, as an aside, you’re not usually the most sleepy the very second you walk through the weeds.

In fact, the study found that daytime sleepiness actually occurs two days after the first exposure, giving the phenomenon the somewhat humorous name “pollen hangover.” The idea is that the inflammatory reaction actually takes 48 hours to fully percolate through the system and affect the person, illustrating the fact that high pollen counts are indeed a whole-body reaction.

Why the Season Hits Harder Now.

If it seems like “pollen season” is beginning earlier and extending longer than it did when you were a kid, you are correct. Climate change is a big part of this, with increased temperatures and CO2 levels expected to boost pollen counts and even the “allergenicity” of this pollen.

And to top it all off, urban air pollution can even interact with this pollen, making it more likely to bind to your airways and increase its allergic impact. It’s a complicated web of influences, from the quality of housing we have to global weather patterns, that will determine how difficult a time we have this spring. By knowing more about what’s going on in our bodies and how we respond to environmental changes, we can prepare for this transition.

Key Takeaways.

Reference:

Al‐Mukhtar, O., Vogrin, S., Lampugnani, E. R., Noaman, S., Dinh, D. T., Brennan, A. L., … & Chan, W. (2022). Temporal Changes in Pollen Concentration Predict Short‐Term Clinical Outcomes in Acute Coronary Syndromes. Journal of the American Heart Association, 11(7), e023036.

Besancenot, J. P., Thibaudon, M., & Cecchi, L. (2011). Has allergenic pollen an impact on non-allergic diseases?. European annals of allergy and clinical immunology, 43(3), 69.

Gray-Ffrench, M., Fernandes, R. M., Sinha, I. P., & Abrams, E. M. (2022). Allergen management in children with type 2-high asthma. Journal of Asthma and Allergy, 381-394.

Larson, P. S., Steiner, A. L., Bennion, E., Baptist, A. P., O’Neill, M. S., & Gronlund, C. J. (2024). Pollen effects in a changing climate: Ragweed pollen exposure and sleepiness in immunotherapy patients of a Southeastern Michigan allergy clinic. International journal of biometeorology, 68(10), 2143-2152.

Disclaimer:

This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. It should not be taken as a medical diagnosis or treatment.

Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional for personalized medical guidance.