Allergy season in Mississippi is here and a new study says that Jackson is one of the most challenging places to live when it comes to allergies.
“As we move into this time of year when we have the weeds,” said Dr. Gailen Marshall, Director of Clinical Immunology and Allergy at UMMC. “The rag weeds and marsh-elder, they typically start somewhere around labor day. They continue to build up into October and then they start to taper down and we tend to have problems until we get the first prolonged cool phase which in Mississippi, it could be as early as the end of October or it may not be until December. So, the end of the fall allergy season is variable depending on the weather.”
Marshall said that the most common way to help allergies is by using intranasal steroids.
“The inflammation that the contact with the pollen will cause in the affected individuals is terrible and the gold standard for that is intranasal steroids, and there are a variety of brands on the market,” said Marshall. “They are generic, they are over the counter and if someone is not sure which one they should use, I would love to tell you one of them is clearly better than the other, they are really not. Even for myself as a sufferer, they are equivalent. It’s like buying different brands of gasoline. We usually go and get the one that has got the best value, not the one that’s got x additives advertised on television.”
Marshall added that the key to the intranasal steroid spray is to use it daily. He also said that using a neti pot can be helpful when dealing with pain from allergies if there is a need to rinse out the sinuses completely.
