Hayfever??

[Trelawney]

This thread has coincided with a very similar set of symptoms that I suffered from just a few days ago. Hay fever for me is also in the first few weeks of June and is successfully treated by a Sainsbury’s own Loratidine daily pill for only that week.
I described my symptoms to my wife as runny nose, flu like feelings, sneezing, all over aches and general discomfort. The treatment was partially effective with paracetamol but I did not think of hayfever. Today, on reading this thread, I will try her hayfever pill and see if that gets rid of the runny nose that is lingering.
All this is in the south of England.

[Hotrodder]

Good luck. I think that will probably ease the symptoms at least partially. I would still like to know what is really going on.

[exile]

Hayfever can appear and disappear without there necessarily being an obvious cause.

I had never had hayfever until prolonged autumn stays here at our French house. It seems that I like thousands of others have become sensitised to Ambroisie whose pollen is extremely allergenic. Its pollen starts around late July through to early September - rather later here in the mountains. So dangerous is it that the advice to councils and departements was to suspend all verge cutting from July onwards.

For me there was an obvious trigger but that is not always been the case. I have reported this before but some may not be aware: the year following first being affected, I found ambroisie in our garden as a few plants in a straight line. A couple of years later I bought some bird seed and noted for the first time that the bags was marked as being ambroisie seed free. The penny dropped. The straight line of plants was from our bird table to the nearest roost tree.

https://www.nouvelle-aquitaine.ars.sant ... our-lhomme

When this started with me it seemed to be restricted to Rhone-Alpes as was, but as you see is spreading.

So that is how easy hayfever can be turned on.

As to what might be causing your springtime affliction: climate change means that trees are producing pollen earlier and earlier and the comparatively mild winter has meant that this year the tree pollens are appearing earlier than ever recorded. Perhaps you have been exposed to ambroisie as a trigger if it has spread as far north as you or maybe something else has been a trigger, plant, pollution or chemical/medication.

So it could be that you have developed an allergy to tree pollen - with no obvious reason for why it has suddenly switched on. It may go away over time - again for no obvious reason.

[Blaze]

For me there was an obvious trigger but that is not always been the case. I have reported this before but some may not be aware: the year following first being affected, I found ambroisie in our garden as a few plants in a straight line. A couple of years later I bought some bird seed and noted for the first time that the bags was marked as being ambroisie seed free. The penny dropped. The straight line of plants was from our bird table to the nearest roost tree.

That's interesting, Exile, I'd never thought of looking at the ingredients of the bird seed I buy. I get 12kg bags from what used to be Gamm Vert (now it's called "La Maison" but looks the same). The only things that I've seen popping up seemed to be some sort of wheat.

I know that Ambroisie is notifiable here, as is Giant Hogweed (Berce du Caucause) which has been seen in the region. Another one is Datura, also known as Moonflower. Some years ago, I stayed with my cousins who lived near Nairobi. They had a wonderful garden but my uncle, who was a doctor when showing me the moonflowers that grew there, said that they were full of irritants, particularly to the eyes. As it happens, I try to be very careful not to touch my eyes after touching plants - for this reason I often wear gloves.

[exile]

Yes we end up with wheat, barley and sunflower seeding around the table? The ambroisie was in more open ground and probably requires that situation to thrive.

When I first looked into this little nasty, the departement was sponsoring students in spring to uproot seedlings from the sandbanks of the Ardèche Gorge. That clearly did not work. I have doubts about whether making it notifiable will provide the protection needed.

[Blaze]

I agree, Exile, I doubt notifying will make the slightest difference. They probably want to map the "progress" of each plant. I think all these nasties are here to stay, a bit like Japanese Knotweed.