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The days are becoming longer and warmer, and nature has woken back up from winter dormancy. You know what that means? It means allergy season is in full effect. Pollen, ragweed, and all the allergens in between are now floating in the air, causing congestion, itchy eyes, and other irritating symptoms for patients with seasonal allergies and even year-round allergies.

Common Allergy Symptoms

Patients with seasonal or year-round allergies know how frustrating exposure to allergens can be.

Seasonal allergies to triggers like pollen and ragweed can be almost impossible to avoid altogether. In many climates, including the one right here in Middle Georgia, tree pollen arrives in early spring and lasts until summer. Then, ragweed pollen takes over, showing up in August and remaining a nuisance until the later stretch of autumn.

Year-round allergies to triggers like dust mites, pet dander, and mold spores are also difficult to avoid altogether, but they can be somewhat controlled through routine cleaning and certain home management choices. (For instance, if you are allergic to pet dander, you can significantly reduce exposure by avoiding indoor pets or relegating your pets to specific areas of the house.)

Those who suffer from airborne allergies typically experience:

  • Chest congestion
  • Excessive coughing
  • Excessive sneezing
  • Eye irritation
  • Eye puffiness
  • Facial swelling
  • Fatigue
  • Runny nose

How to Reduce Exposure to Allergens in Your Home All Summer Long

To help reduce your allergy symptoms and minimize the amount of allergens in your home throughout the summer, follow these tips:

Keep Doors and Windows Shut

It’s understandable to want to keep your windows and doors open during the warmer months to allow fresh air to circulate through. But keeping either open gives plenty of room for pollen, ragweed, and other irritating pollutants to enter your home and wreak havoc on your immune system.

Even homes with screened-in porches, screens on the doors, or screens on the windows can experience an increase in allergens inside the house when doors and windows are left open.

Your smartest move is to keep everything shut to minimize the amount of pollen that will enter the home.

Keep Your Home Vacuumed and Dusted

Even with doors and windows shut, you’re likely to track pollen in from the outside any time you return home from work, school, errands, or being out in your yard.

To help fight the tracked-in pollen, as well as dust and debris that accumulate throughout the year, maintain a routine cleaning schedule that includes dusting and vacuuming. Both activities work to remove allergens from the surfaces of your furniture, objects, and flooring, which minimizes the likelihood of these allergens reaching you or your family members’ immune systems.

Even cleaning once a week is effective in removing allergens from your home and keeping your indoor space free from allergy-inducing irritants.

Regularly Clean Your Bedding

You might not know it, but your bedding is often a trap for pollen, ragweed, dust mites, pet dander, and other allergens. To release these and other irritants from your bedding, wash your sheets, blankets, pillowcases, comforters, duvets, and other bedding items regularly, ideally on a weekly basis.

The heat from the washing machine and dryer helps kill dust mites, and the agitation from both machines knocks particles out of your bedding, allowing you to breathe a bit easier throughout the night.

Invest in an Air Filtration System

Studies have shown that homes with air filtration systems have fewer airborne pollutants, including allergens, than homes that do not utilize such technology. Increase your indoor protection against allergens by filtering the air inside. High-efficiency particulate air filters, also known as HEPA filters, are perfect for single rooms that need more filtration than others. There are also whole-house options that target all the rooms inside your house and significantly reduce the amount of allergens floating around.

It doesn’t matter if you suffer from summer allergies or year-round allergies—you need relief from your allergy symptoms. Turn to the specialists at Langford Allergy for effective treatment.

Dr. Langford and our team treat all allergies and allergy symptoms, including summertime allergies and year-round allergies. We perform thorough testing to determine your triggers. Plus, we offer treatments, medications, and education to protect you from allergens that you cannot avoid exposure to.

Schedule an allergy test with our team today: 478-787-4728

Langford Allergy delivers allergy, asthma, and immune deficiency care to patients throughout Middle Georgia, including:

  • Macon, GA
  • Warner Robins, GA
  • Milledgeville, GA
  • Forsyth, GA

Related articles:

What Effects Can Pollen Have on Your Allergies?

How to Help Your Child Manage Their Allergies

3 Signs You May Have a Mold Allergy

What Are Some Causes of Hay Fever?