Three easy ways to keep symptoms down are by knowing what triggers allergy symptoms and avoiding it, keeping the indoor air clean and keeping allergens out of the home and office. But if these steps are not enough, there are also treatments like over-the-counter medications, prescription medications and alternative treatments such as acupuncture, herbal medications and breathing techniques.
Allergy symptoms include asthma, eye allergies, hay fever, hives, swelling and migraines, which can be caused by a variety of things, such as mold, dust or pollen.
Cleaning Tips
Cleaning is one of the easiest, least expensive ways to cut down on allergens in the home and office. Regular cleaning with hot water and soap can make a difference, as well as washing bedding often.
Cleaning tips provided by medicinenet.com include:
- Keeping the home between 68 and 72 degrees F
- maintaining a low humidity
- Good ventilation
- Reducing clutter and clothes lying around
- Choosing furniture that is wood, leather, vinyl, rubberized or a washable slipcover
- Wood, tile and linoleum floorings are easier to clean, as well as washable throw rugs
- Washable cloth or synthetic shades are easier to clean than venetian blinds, mini-blinds and pleated shades.
Keeping Allergens Out
There are ways to reduce the amount of allergens that are in the home.
On the Weather Channel’s Website, in the health section there is an allergies and pollen count that gives the current and 3-day forecast on tree, grass and weed counts in a given zip code.
When allergy and pollen counts are at moderate to high levels, avoid opening windows especially in the early morning.
Cleaning air condition and heating systems will also cut down on allergens entering the home and using High Efficiency Particulate Air-filters, HEPA filters, is also an option.
Allergens that are Found in Oklahoma
The list of allergens in Oklahoma is lofty. A complete list can be found on the Weather Channel’s Website. The website also provides a picture and information about the habitat and range of the allergen, as well as the season, type, leaves, flowers, allergenic components and allergenic properties.
Some allergens to look out for are:
- American elm
- American hazelnut
- American linden
- Annual ragweed
- Annual wormwood
- Arizona walnut
- Bahia grass
- Bean tree
- Bermuda grass
- Bitter dock
- Bitter nut hickory
- Black hickory
- Black locust
- Black oak
- Black walnut
- Black willow
- Black-eyed susan
- Bloodroot
- Box elder
- Bracken ffern
- Brookside alder
- Broomweed
- Buckwheat
- Bulrush
- Burning bush
- Burr oak
- Butterweed
- Canadian goldenrod
- Careless weed
- Carnation
- Cedar elm
- Celery
- Chicory
- Chinese elm
- Coastal saltgrass
- Cockleburs
- Cockspur hawthorn
- Common canarygrass
- Common dandelion
- Common reed
- Common sunflower
- Common tansy
- Common velvetgrass
- Consumption weed
- Coral honeysuckle
- Coriander
- Cottonwood
- Crape myrtle
- Crested wheatgrass
- Cultivated bread wheat
- Cultivated carrot
- Cultivated oat
- Cultivated rice
- Curly dock
- Daisy/Ox-Eye
- Death camas
- Devil's walkingstick
- Dill
- Eastern red cedar
- Elderberry
- English plantain
- Flat-spine burr ragweed
- Flat-stem bluegrass
- Gambel's oak
- Giant ragweed
- Green ash
- Green sage
- Honey mesquite
- Honeysuckle
- Hop hornbeam
- Hyacinth
- Jack-in-the-pulpit
- Japanese honeysuckle
- Jimson weed
- Johnsongrass
- Kentucky bluegrass
- Lance-leaf ragweed
- Leatherbark
- Lettuce
- Mayapple
- Mexican tea
- Milfoil/Yarrow
- Mimosa
- Mockernut hickory
- Mountain cedar
- Narrow-leaf marsh elder
- Northern read oak
- Northern white oak
- Ohio buckey
- One-seed juniper
- Osage orange
- Painted leaf
- Palmer's amaranth
- Paper mulberry
- Pasque-flower
- Peach
- Pecan
- Periwinkle
- Pfitzer
- Pit seed goosefoot
- Poison hemlock
- Poison ivy
- Poison oak
- Ponderosa pine
- Post oak
- Poverty weed
- Prairie ragweed
- Prickly lettuce
- Primrose
- Purple queen
- Quack grass
- Queen's delight
- Ragwort
- Red buckeye
- Red clover
- Redtop
- Reed Canarygrass
- Richweed
- Rocky mountain juniper
- Rye brome
- Sagewort
- Scarlet pimpernel
- Short-leaf pine
- Siberian elm
- Silver maple
- Slender amaranth
- Slippery elm
- Smooth brome
- Sneezeweed/Bitter sneezeweed
- Soapberry
- Spinach
- St. John's wort
- Stinging nettle
- Sugar maple
- Sugarberry
- Swamp oak
- Sweet gum
- Thyme
- Tree-of-heaven
- Trumpet vine
- Tumbleweed
- Umbrella tree
- Virginia beardgrass
- Virginia creeper
- Weak leaf
- Western wheatgrass
- White ash
- White clover
- White poplar
- White sage
- Wild ginger
- Wild parsnip
- Willow oak
- Yellow Indian grass
- Yellow nut sedge
- Yellow sweet clover
Allergy symptoms are irritating and can disrupt daily activities, but there are simple things that can reduce allergen effects at home or in an office.
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