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Guaranteed Human.

Welcome to Wellness on Mass.

I'm Dr. Nicole Sapphire, and this is your weekly rundown.

Well, if you are like many million Americans across the country, not excluding my husband

and one of my kiddos, you're clearly suffering right now. If it feels like

allergy season is getting worse every year, you're not imagining it. The data actually

backs that up. Right now, about one in four adults, so 25% of every adult walking around here

in the United States, and about 20% or one in five children in the U.S. suffer from seasonal allergies,

and that number has been climbing. And here's what's really striking. Over the last 50 years,

pollen seasons are now roughly three weeks longer and produce about 20% more pollen than they

used to. So what's driving this? Well, there are a few

key factors. First, warmer temperatures. We're seeing earlier springs and fewer freezing days,

which if you're in the Northeast, you probably think that I'm full of it right now because

it's been a very cold spring. But we're just talking overall right now. So what we're

seeing is more plants starting to pollinate sooner, and it just keeps going longer. While this does

make for beautiful gardens, and I love it, the allergy sufferers do not as much. Also, we have higher

carbon dioxide levels circulating. Plants actually thrive on CO2, so they grow bigger and release more pollen into the air with increased levels of CO2. And thirdly, longer growing seasons just overall. In fact, the freeze-free season has lengthened in nearly 90% of U.S. cities,

giving plants more time to produce, that's right, more allergens. So if you put all that together,

you're going to get longer, more intense allergy seasons with higher pollen counts.

Now, why do some years feel worse than others? Well, it just obviously

comes down to the weather patterns. A mild winter leads to an earlier and heavier pollen release.

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