This time of year can be glorious with all those colourful, sprouting flowers heralding the spring. However, for some of us those pollen-laden blooms can dampen our excitement. It’s hay fever season!
You’ve got a runny nose, headaches, you’re sneezing and coughing and congested in the head. We all try to do the right thing and avoid others when we’re unwell – especially after COVID. So how do you know the difference between seasonal hay fever and a common cold?
Here are a few tips from the My Hayfever website.
Hayfever is caused by an allergy that triggers an immune response and all those irritating inflammatory symptoms to things like pollens, dust mites, moulds or animal dander (that’s invisible flakes of skin shed by animals with fur, hair, or feathers).
A common cold, on the other hand, is caused by a virus and the body fights it by producing antibodies against it. There is still an immune response, but it is triggered by a different factor.
We’re told one of the main differences between hay fever and a cold is how long the symptoms persist. A cold usually lasts 10 days or less, and most people recover on their own without medical care or with over-the-counter medicines while hay fever can last as long as you’re exposed to the trigger.
As with any medical condition, it’s important to speak to your doctor or pharmacist and come up with an individualised treatment plan when you suffer from hay fever or a cold.
Whatever unpleasantness you are suffering in spring, we wish you a speedy recovery or deliverance from that pesky hay fever trigger!
