With Fall allergy season already in full bloom and COVID-19 causing increased anxiety and fear among patients, their shared symptoms may cause many to be confused and stress over whether their yearly cough is COVID-19. At Concierge Internal Medicine, we want to prevent that so here’s what you need to know:
Understanding Allergies:
Allergies are caused when people’s immune systems overreact to irritants in the environment. For fall, common irritants include ragweed, pollen, dust, and mold. Allergies can be either seasonal or year-round and typically are developed before ten. However, allergy intensity can grow stronger with age before fading in adulthood; and are capable of developing at any time in life, so new allergies for most people are possible.
Common symptoms of allergies include headaches, itchy/watery eyes, itchy/runny nose, mild fatigue, congestion, and sore throat resulting from congestion.
Preventing allergy symptoms:
While the severity of a person’s symptoms plays a role in how successful they can be in trying to avoid allergy symptoms for those with less severe symptoms, there are some simple things to make part of your routine that can go a long way.
One of the easiest ways is to go out later in the day. Allergens, such as pollen, are the heaviest between sunrise and ten in the morning, so kicking back activities that take you outside during those times can help prevent exposure.
Another easy way is to change and wash your clothes when you get back from outside. Cleaning the house regularly to avoid dust build-up can also help those experiencing allergy symptoms around the house. However, if you experience persistent or strong symptoms that could be from allergies, you may need to visit a medical professional for further testing.
Understanding COVID-19:
The coronavirus (COVID-19) is the name of the viral illness currently labeled a pandemic by countries and health organizations that has infected over seven million Americans. Symptoms typically emerge two to fourteen days after exposure and last around fourteen days for most people, although people who contract COVID-19 can remain asymptomatic and no show any symptoms.
Common symptoms of COVID-19 include body aches, dry cough, fever, intense fatigue, loss of smell and taste, and shortness of breath.
Lowering the Odds of Getting COVID-19
According to the Center for Disease Control’s guidelines, the best way to avoid contracting COVID is to practice social distancing guidelines. These include wearing a mask when in public or around other people, maintaining six feet of distance between yourself and people you are interacting with, frequently washing your hands when around others or in common spaces, and adhering to relevant laws involving public gatherings and public spaces for your area. Practicing effective social distancing can greatly lower the chance of contracting COVID.
Testing
If you or someone in your household have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, you should look into getting tested at a testing center near you. If you have a history of allergies and develop your allergy symptoms, then you probably don’t need to sound the alarm right now. One important thing to monitor with that is the duration of your symptoms, as allergies tend to last longer than COVID-19.
However, if you believe you or a household member may be experiencing allergies, and our tips to avoid allergens haven’t worked, we offer allergy tests here in our office. With our test, we can determine if these are allergy symptoms or not, and if so, what’s causing them and what type of treatment plan will work best for you.
