You're listening to Life Kit from NPR.

Hey, it's Mariel.

I tend to be an optimistic, joyful person.

But this is one of the things that makes me think we're in the bad place.

As soon as the weather gets nice in the spring, many of us are besieged by seasonal allergies.

The thing you want to do most is open your windows or step outside and enjoy the weather,

and instead you end up hiding inside, looking out the window longingly, while, if you're me, nursing a sinus infection.

The culprit here is, of course, tree pollen.

When trees pollinate in the spring, that pollen floats around in the air, ending up in our

noses, our eyes, sometimes in our lungs.

It's very annoying.

So the most common symptoms are going to be sneezing in an itchy nose, runny nose, nasal congestion or a stuffy sensation in the

nose, itchy, watery eyes, redness of the eyes, puffy eyelids, post-nasal drainage, cough.

Prathusha Savjani is a board-certified allergist and immunologist with a clinic in central

Houston. And she says when symptoms progress, folks can also have trouble sleeping or end up with a sinus

infection or have their asthma flare up.

On this episode of Life Kit, we're going to talk about what you can do to make this time

of year more comfortable.

I consider myself a seasoned sufferer of seasonal allergies, and I learned some new

things when we chatted, including that oral antihistamines are not the most helpful treatment

for this problem, and that what really helps is calming down your nasal tissue using rinses and

sprays. That's coming up after the break. I'd love to talk about some of the ways those of us

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