Hay fever suffers seem to be highly sensitive not only to typical seasonal allergy triggers like grass and tree pollens, but also to things like cold air, perfumes, cigarette smoke, household cleaning products, and even exercise.
According to a new study, people with hay fever or seasonal allergic rhinitis are more likely than those without seasonal allergies to react when exposed to these "non-allergic triggers," Dr Dennis Shusterman of the University of Washington, Seattle, reported at a gathering of asthma and allergy specialists in San Diego this week.
Shusterman and his colleagues studied non-allergen triggers among 60 adults between 19 and 68 years old with and without a history of allergic rhinitis.
They found that the majority of subjects who reported reacting to more than three of the non-allergic triggers had a history of allergic rhinitis.
Specifically, 42 percent of seasonal hay fever sufferers reported more than three non-allergic triggers like cold air, perfumes and tobacco smoke, compared with only 3 percent of subjects without a history of allergic rhinitis.
"Interestingly," Shusterman said, "a previously published study came up with very similar numbers so I think this is a very real phenomenon in which there is a subset of allergic rhinitics who are also responsive to non-allergic triggers."
People in the study who were older than 35 years of age were more likely to report one or more non-allergic hay fever triggers, particularly tobacco smoke.
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