I've had allergies my whole life.

When trees grow, they produce pollets.

Allergies suck.

Hey, I'm John Glenn Hill, and you're listening to explain it to me.

The podcast where we answer the questions that matter most to you.

A couple weeks ago, we asked to hear about your allergy struggles, and we found out a lot of you have them.

Hi, my name is Melanie Posdill. I'm from Chicago, Illinois. Growing up, I didn't really suffer

from seasonal allergies, but I feel like in my, in the past couple of years, particularly

since the pandemic, my seasonal allergies have gotten really bad.

My name's Dorian. I happen to know JQ, the host. Allergies been the ban of my existence

since I was a little girl, and the spring is my favorite season because of them. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Trey, and I've had allergies my whole life.

Allergies suck. I'm plagued by them myself. As the weather gets warmer, there's this fine gold dust that settles on everything, and that's when the sneezing really begins.

And it makes sense. One in five kids are allergic to pollen and about a quarter of all adults are too.

We're going to talk about how to make them better, but before we can work that out, we need to

understand where they come from. So I reached out to Nilu Tomala. She's an ear, nose,

and throat surgeon at NYU Langone Health.

So, right now, the most predominant pollen that we're dealing with is tree pollen.

And so when trees grow, they produce pollen.

And a lot of times these pollen, the pollen is dispersed, especially early in the mornings.

And when certain individuals, not everyone, but unfortunately, dispersed, especially early in the mornings. And when certain individuals,

not everyone, but unfortunately, when certain individuals breathe in this pollen, it triggers an immune response inside their bodies. And so with this immune response, you get this cascade of

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