Battling fall allergies

While it’s still sweltering hot outside, the official fall season is on the way and this is something allergy sufferers know all too well.

It’s that time of year again. With fall just around the corner, leaves are fading to a rustic color and falling, but it’s mostly what you can’t see, autumn pollen and other allergens, that leads to a steady stream of patients at allergy clinics.

Dr. Mark Murray knows first-hand how his patients feel when they come in. His own asthma and allergies led him to this line of work as a doctor with the Mississippi Asthma and Allergy Clinic in D’Iberville. “It was actually during my pediatric residency when I got a chance to follow an allergist in Chattanooga,Tennessee. He actually did allergy testing on me and ended up treating my asthma and my allergies.So I feel like that’s something I really want to do for my patients as well.”

There are ways you can find out what you are allergic to. One way is a scratch test and there are several options for relief like the allergy shot. “They actually get at the underlying allergy problem, so instead of taking daily medications which just mask the symptoms with the allergy shots, you actually change how your immune system responds to these allergens. It builds a tolerance to these things that essentially makes you not so allergic,” said Dr. Murray.

The fall weed pollens, ragweed in particular, begin showing up as early as the beginning of August and continue to increase throughout the fall with the season typically extending into October and beyond in South Mississippi. There’s still time to snuff out those pesky allergies or at least get some relief until this season passes.