Austin, TX
What is cedar fever and what can you do about it?
FOX 7 Dialogue: What’s cedar fever?
Many Central Texans have been muddling by way of cedar fever recently, however what precisely is it and what can folks do to deal with it? Allergist Dr. Ron Cox of Better Austin Allergy sits down with FOX 7 Austin’s John Krinjak to elucidate extra.
AUSTIN, Texas – A whole lot of us have been having fun with the nice and cozy climate the previous couple weeks, however for allergy victims, it’s kind of of a distinct story, particularly with regards to cedar.
Many Central Texans have been muddling by way of cedar fever recently. Though it is round for flu season, cedar fever is neither a flu nor a virus. It’s an allergic response to the pollen launched by mountain cedar bushes. The predominant species of mountain cedar in Texas is the Ashe juniper.
READ MORE: Cedar fever season in Texas: What are the signs of cedar fever?
Austin allergist Dr. Ron Cox of Better Austin Allergy sits down with FOX 7 Austin’s John Krinjak to elucidate extra about cedar fever and what to do about it.
JOHN KRINJAK: So I need to begin with, what’s cedar fever precisely? And why is it flaring up for therefore many individuals proper now?
RON COX: Nicely, cedar fever comes from the juniper bushes, which is type of distinctive to the Central Texas space, and what’s attention-grabbing about is it pollinates in December, January and February, the place every little thing else is just about within the springtime, so far as the bushes. And the difficulty of it, we’ve this stunning climate now and folks and persons are discouraged to go exterior as a result of the cedar fever is knocking them down. And so what it’s is a pollen that is distinctive to the realm that causes all kinds of signs just like the itchy, runny, sneezing, but in addition causes stuffy and a bit of little bit of fatigue. And distinctive to cedar is it might truly trigger a fever as effectively.
JOHN KRINJAK: What are some issues folks can do to deal with or a minimum of mitigate the signs?
RON COX: So one of many greatest issues you are able to do is keep indoors. However no person needs to try this, and you need to get out when it is stunning like this. So issues you are able to do is exit later within the night. You should use saline irrigation to rinse all of the pollen out of your sinuses after you have been out for prolonged durations of time. You may also use systane extremely to rinse your eyes out. So lots of issues you are able to do so far as avoidance measures go. After which you’ll be able to deal with with medicines if that does not be just right for you.
JOHN KRINJAK: Is it true which you could truly develop a cedar allergy over time? How does that work?
RON COX: So that isn’t an unusual factor, that when folks transfer to Austin, their first couple years they’re like ‘no, I am golden. I haven’t got any issues with cedar in any respect.’ however then your physique processes it and decides that it does not prefer it, and it creates an antibody that if you see it the subsequent time, it creates all of the allergy signs that you’ve got. So it’s not unusual to develop a cedar allergy years three by way of 5 of being right here.
Dr. Cox says given the latest prevalence of the “triple-demic”, it might generally be troublesome to distinguish between cedar fever, and a viral an infection akin to COVID, flu, or RSV. Cox recommends utilizing this desk from Nationwide Kids’s Hospital to match particular signs of every situation.
Signs of cedar fever just like COVID-19, chilly or flu embody fatigue, sore throat, runny nostril, partial lack of odor, and a slight fever. Fevers reaching over 101.5 °F, nonetheless, are more likely to be attributable to one thing aside from cedar fever.
Signs relative to cedar fever solely embody itchy, watery eyes, blocked nasal passages, and sneezing. One technique to distinguish allergy symptoms from illness is mucous coloration, as cedar fever causes clear and operating mucous whereas different infections result in thicker, coloured mucous.