Mens Health Blog. Medical Blog

Pollen is everywhere, and it flourishes where most people live. There are exceptions, such as at the polar caps and at very high altitudes, but these are sufficiently inaccessible to most of us to be, essentially, irrelevant.
The following are general guidelines that can reduce both your exposure to the ubiquitous pollens and the symptoms that result from that exposure:
1. Staying inside with closed doors and windows is the best way to reduce your exposure to pollens during your particular pollen season(s).
2. Window fans and attic fans are infamous for drawing pollens into homes. Any type of fan can stir up mite particles, mold spores, animal danders, and pollens already within your home. In general, if you are allergic to a variety of inhaled indoor and outdoor allergens, it is best not to use fans in your home.
3. Putting the car air conditioner on “re-circulate” while driving will help reduce pollen exposure.
4. Obviously, outdoor activities and yard work during your pollen season(s) can worsen your symptoms. If you are grass-or tree-pollen allergic, try to have someone else tend your yard during the weed, grass, and tree pollen seasons.
5. Don’t hang clothes or bedding outside to dry, as they become pollen catchers.
6. A good filter on your central air/heat system or a standalone filtering unit in your bedroom can be very helpful. Remember, though, filters filter. Since these filter systems work effectively only as long as they are kept clean, wash them weekly during your allergy season(s).
7. It is best if you are not the one to hose down, blow, or sweep the yellow pollen off of your driveway, porch or patio.
8. Get out of town – way out of town – during your season(s). If possible, plan your vacation and go to an area not filled with the pollen(s) to which you are allergic. If only we could escape for an entire season!
Getting away during a pollen season does work for some people, especially people who are very reactive to only a single pollen such as ragweed. They can go where the counts are generally very low, places like Florida, the big island of Hawaii, Alaska, eastern Canada, the Virgin Islands, or even Bermuda. If you live in south central Texas and happen to be very reactive only to mountain cedar pollen, you can go almost anywhere else and get relief during your season.
Unfortunately, most people with chronic allergic rhinitis are reactive to many different allergens: pollens, dusts, mites, and molds. So, even though they might vacation away from ragweed, they are likely to discover that their vacation paradise has grass or tree pollens, or mites and mold spores in abundance – that they have even worse allergies on vacation than they do at home.
Before you rush off someplace, be sure you’re not going from the frying pan into the fire. Talk to your allergist.
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What petrol is to a car, glucose is to the body – an energy-rich fuel that keeps every part of the body alive and powers our muscles. Glucose is carried around the body in the blood, and cells that need glucose can absorb it from the blood. It is very important that the level of glucose in the blood is always kept at about the same level. The brain is the organ most sensitive to a change in glucose level – too little produces tiredness, confusion, irritability, aggression and other symptoms, while too much may result in loss of consciousness.

The body keeps glucose at the right level with the help of several hormones, the main ones being glucagon and insulin. Glucagon releases glucose from the liver, where it is stored, when the blood sugar is low. Insulin comes into play when the blood sugar is too high – it takes glucose out of circulation and puts it into store. The level of glucagon is kept fairly steady, whereas the level of insulin changes rapidly in reponse to changes in blood glucose. After a meal, especially one containing a lot of sugar or starch, large quantities of glucose pass into the blood. Insulin is therefore produced to keep the blood glucose down. In diabetics, too little insulin is produced. They must compensate with injected insulin, and avoid foods that release a lot of glucose at once -mainly sugar and other sweet foods.

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