Hay fever can be described as an allergy caused by pollen. Pollen is the very fine powdery substance created by plants for the use in pollination, or fertilization. In its most common guise, hay fever is the allergy caused by grass or hay pollens and usually occurs from late spring until early summer.

Usual symptoms of the condition include a runny nose, sneezing, and streaming, itchy eyes. The symptoms are caused due to the body’s immune system reacting to the pollen. Cells which line the nose and eyes tend to release chemicals such as histamines when they come into contact with the pollen, and this causes the inflammation in the eyes and nose which produce the symptoms.

Hay Fever

Hay fever is a very common allergy and affects almost two in every ten people in western society. It usually develops in children of school age and teenage years and the symptoms reappear year after year. Eventually, the symptoms start to decrease over the course of many years, until the condition either disappears totally, or improves vastly. The condition usually runs in families and an individual is more likely to develop asthma or eczema if they already suffer from hay fever.

Although it’s impossible to avoid pollen totally, symptoms are less severe if exposure is reduced. Nowadays pollen counts are freely available for all regions via TV, radio and the internet. Sufferers of the condition are normally treated with antihistamine tablets, antihistamine nose sprays, steroidal nose sprays and eye drops.