SearchExclusive.com

How Ragweed Symptoms Affect Your Body

Ragweed symptoms are caused by the multitude of airborne pollen that give rise to allergies in people. Learn how ragweed symptoms affect your body.

Ragweed plants are weeds with soft stems that are found growing freely all over the United States. In fact, there are at least 17 different species of the plant that grow in North America alone. Found in large quantities in the Eastern and Midwestern parts of the country, ragweed blooms during the months of August through November. When it blooms, a ragweed plant releases its pollen into the air. This results in really high levels of airborne pollen, especially during mid-September.

According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, approximately 20 to 25 percent of Americans are allergic to ragweed. Known as one of the most common causes of seasonal allergies in the country, ragweed pollen triggers the immune system, which mistakes it for a harmful compound in the body. The immune system begins to work overtime to produce chemicals so as to fight off the pollen in the body, even though on its own, the pollen does no harm. This allergic reaction is also known as a type of allergic rhinitis or hay fever. This reaction manifests itself in the form of a number of ragweed symptoms.

Ragweed Symptoms that Affect the Eyes

People who are allergic to ragweed are likely to notice that their eyes are experiencing several ragweed symptoms. These include watery or teary eyes, itchiness around the eye area, as well as heightened redness of the eyes. Furthermore, your eyes may end up looking stuffy and tired, with dark circles, after you have tolerated these ragweed symptoms for a while.

Some of these symptoms may be alleviated with the help of eye drops.

Ragweed Symptoms that Affect the Nose

As with most other pollen allergies, ragweed symptoms specifically affect the nose. After you have been exposed to ragweed for a while, you may notice that your nose is feeling itchy and runny. Many people find it difficult to recognize or detect smells. Bouts of sneezing completes the list of the early ragweed symptoms that affect the nose. Over some time, these ragweed symptoms graduate to nasal congestions, sinus pain, and sometimes, it may even develop into a sinus infection or sinusitis. Perhaps the demographic that is most affected by ragweed symptoms are those who have asthma. Asthmatics are likely to suffer more severe and frequently occurring asthma attacks after being exposed to ragweed pollen.

Some relief from these ragweed symptoms may be found by using a nasal spray, decongestant, or saline flush.

Ragweed Symptoms that Affect the Throat

Early ragweed symptoms that affect the throat include soreness or an itchy feeling in the throat. With prolonged exposure to ragweed, you may even develop a cough. Other than the throat area, ragweed symptoms also affect your mouth making it itchy and dry, and reducing your sense of taste.

Throat pain caused by ragweed allergy may be alleviated with the use of OTC lozenges.

Other Common Ragweed Symptoms

Other than the mouth, throat, eyes, and nose, your ears may also bear the brunt of ragweed symptoms. Many people with ragweed allergies complain of ear infections and clogged ears that are an effect of exposure to ragweed pollen. Allergic people may also notice an increase in the number of headaches they have, along with irritability, fatigue, trouble in concentrating and thinking, etc.

Most ragweed symptoms can be effectively treated with the help of antihistamines.

In some rare cases, individuals may also develop allergic eczema which is characterized by itchy and painful rashes made of small blisters and bumps. In general, such a rash appears within a day or two of exposure to ragweed, and may take over two to three weeks to heal completely. Other irritants can serve to worsen ragweed symptoms. Tobacco smoke, air pollution, and string smells are likely to affect your ragweed symptoms, and make them even worse.

According to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), climatic changes over the last few years have extended the duration of the warmer seasons. This allows the ragweed pollen season to go for a longer time, during which even more pollen is created. The high quantity of pollen found in the air further exacerbates ragweed symptoms and allergies.

Related Reading

Tips for Buying the Best Dog Food

Most of the dogs do not have a food fuss and may eat almost anything that you feed them. Dogs are not choosy at all when it comes to food and nutrition. Hence, it is important to make sure that the food that you are purchasing for your dog is healthy. The landscape of dog food has been developing by leaps and bounds in recent times. There is a wide variety of options to choose from in the online and offline market. Given the wide range of options that are available today, buying the best dog food might seem to be a confusing task indeed. All the commercial pet food that is available in the market today is regulated by the FDA. Therefore, most of the products do contain nutritious, healthy, and safe ingredients. But it does help to know certain basic factors you should look for while buying food for your dog. Prioritize on the nutritional guarantee The best dog food, which meets the dog’s needs adequately has a statement written on the label of the product, from the Association of American Feed Control Officials. Buy from some of the best dog food brands, such as Fromm Family Foods, Earthborn Holistic, Nature’s Variety Instinct, and The Honest Kitchen.

Different Types of Kitchen Cabinets Available for Your Home

The most important aspect when designing your kitchen is deciding on the type of cabinets. In addition to functionality, kitchen cabinets score on aesthetics as well. Once the layout is planned, you can go ahead with choosing the cabinets. If you’re remodeling your home or just the kitchen, what you need to consider are the types of cabinets that furnish your kitchen. Here are a few types of kitchen cabinets that you can choose from. Base cabinets These kitchen cabinets are mounted on the floor and they are placed after checking out the floor plan. A major part of your job in the kitchen is on these base cabinets, which hold and support the countertops. These base cabinets are combined to carve out kitchen islands. A number of base cabinets are fused/set against one another and installed on site. The base cabinets, in addition to supporting the countertops, serve as drawers to hold your cutlery and appliances. Wall cabinets Mounted on the walls, these cabinets can store everything, right from your cookware to cookbooks. In terms of design, they offer utmost flexibility. Wall cabinet kitchen is available in varying heights, multiple widths, and custom depth options. This customization helps you to fit in your stuff of varying shapes and sizes into the wall cabinets.

How to Pick the Right Dog Food for a Sensitive Stomach

In today’s world, where you are presented with over a dozen choices for every item you would purchase for your own kitchen, it is not surprising that you have an equal number of options for your dog’s food. However, choosing the perfect brand and formula for your dog out of a range of options in the market is not an easy job. Your pet depends on you and trusts you to make the right choice for them. Therefore, it is imperative that you do your research about the products available in the market, understand what your dog needs, know what might be your pet’s problems, and then make a sound decision. What is a sensitive stomach? Dogs are known to have voracious and large appetites. Keeping that in mind, it is normal to assume that they have strong stomachs. They can eat close to anything be it sweets, bakes, chewy gum, hard leather or even woolen socks for that matter! It always so happens that the strongest of them are prone to allergies and can develop a disorder which is medically translated as a sensitive stomach. This might be due to a sudden change in the food habits or even due an infection picked up from somewhere.

All You Need to Know about Cat Food

For cat owners, cat food is a hot topic. You need to think about it in different aspects. The best thing is to know which ingredients are good for cat food and which are harmful. If you are aware of this, you can get an idea about the quality of the cat food just by going through the label. It is always sensible to stick to one brand of cat food. However, you may also want to try and prepare cat food yourself. There are also various options for wet cat food as well. Cat’s love for fish is universal, so you can do without going for expensive cat food. Nevertheless, whether you buy it or prepare cat food at home, you need to ensure that the food contains enough nutrition and calories. You would need to have some idea about the ingredients that must be present in cat food and make a worthy selection for your cat. Basic ingredients present in good cat foods Cats need a variety of nutrients to stay healthy and active; they need various vitamins, minerals, fats, proteins, and oils. The following is a brief explanation of the basic ingredients that should be present in cat foods.