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No city is safe for allergy sufferers, study finds

No city is safe for allergy sufferers, study finds

Yahoo2 days ago
There's no escape from it — pollen is in every U.S. state, ready to torment your nostrils.
The seeds rain down from the trees in a strange yellow haze and ascends to the skies from the flowers and grasses. Even if you could easily pack up and move, nowhere is safe to avoid the dreaded, sniffling effects of seasonal allergies.
'It's a little bit like playing Russian Roulette,' Hannah Jaffee, the director of research at the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, told The Independent. 'If you already have allergies, you can be exposed to an entirely different set of allergens if you relocate.'
'Worst case scenario: you may live in a place and either not have allergy symptoms or have mild allergy symptoms. Then, you move somewhere else and start developing significant symptoms,' she added.
Everyone is going to respond differently to a new location.
'If you already have allergies, you can be exposed to an entirely different set of allergens if you relocate. So, you might be trading some symptoms for others.'
'And then, in some cases, your symptoms might improve by relocating,' Jaffee said.
More than 100 million Americans live with various types of allergies and over 81 million have seasonal pollen allergies.
Some are genetically predisposed to develop allergies, which can factor into what they're allergic to and potentially how severe their symptoms would be.
Many people develop allergies as they age and their immune system weakens.
Seasonal allergies, which are also commonly known as 'allergic rhinitis' or hay fever, occur when people are exposed to pollen.
The inflammatory response can cause sneezing, congestion, a runny nose, or red, watery, and itchy eyes. For people with asthma, it can lead to an asthma attack. For tens of thousands of people, it may even result in a trip to the emergency room.
The severity of allergy symptoms also depends on where you live. There are three main types of pollen, including tree, grass, and weed. This year, the highest tree pollen levels were forecast across a wide swath stretching from the Pacific Northwest to the Southeast.
The highest weed pollen levels were expected around the Plains states, the Carolinas, and along the Gulf Coast.
The foundation also released what it named the nation's top 10 cities for seasonal allergies, with most located in the South and Southeast. Historically, the worst cities are in those regions, Jaffee noted.
'That's because these are climates that tend to be more humid and warmer, so they kind of favor that growth of pollen and mold,' she explained.
Wichita, Kansas, led the rankings as the worst city for allergy sufferers.
'Since allergies are so different for everyone, you can thrive in the Southeast part of the U.S. and not have any allergies or still experience significant allergy symptoms elsewhere,' Jaffee said. 'It's kind of a mixed bag.'
So, what do you do if you are moving — or want to? Generally, experts recommend that you visit the location for about two to four weeks ahead of time to get a sense of how your body responds, or to visit during different seasons. Talking to an allergist will also be useful for more personalized recommendations.
Still, pollen seasons are getting longer and stronger for everyone.
Human-caused climate change is resulting in earlier seasons, as well, with warmer temperature trapping heat around urban areas, increasing air pollution, and stimulating pollen production. The amount of pollen released by trees is higher and the strength of the allergic response to the tree pollen appears to be stronger.
'There's no question [that] as there's global warming, the pollen season is increasing,' Dr, Sanjiv Sur, director and professor of Allergy and Immunology at Baylor College of Medicine, said earlier this year.
What may help ease the pain, if only for right now?
Dr. Neelu Tummala, a clinical assistant professor of otolaryngology at NYU Langone Health, advises that people time taking medications so they are optimally effective, change clothes and take off shoes after spending time outside, and bathe pets.
Jaffee recommends a pollen tracking app, in addition to personalized allergy testing. But, ultimately, there needs to be a wider response.
'Long-term, we should be looking at policy change to reduce the impact of climate change,' said the foundation's chief mission officer Melanie Carver.
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An Ohio couple welcomes a baby boy from a nearly 31-year-old frozen embryo
An Ohio couple welcomes a baby boy from a nearly 31-year-old frozen embryo

CBS News

timea minute ago

  • CBS News

An Ohio couple welcomes a baby boy from a nearly 31-year-old frozen embryo

A baby boy born last week to an Ohio couple developed from an embryo that had been frozen for more than 30 years in what is believed to be the longest storage time before a birth. In what's known as embryo adoption, Lindsey and Tim Pierce used a handful of donated embryos that have been frozen since 1994 in pursuit of having a child after fighting infertility for years. Their son was born Saturday from an embryo that had been in storage for 11,148 days, which the Pierces' doctor says sets a record. It's a concept that has been around since the 1990s but is gaining traction as some fertility clinics and advocates, often Christian-centered, oppose discarding leftover embryos because of their belief that life begins at or around conception and that all embryos deserve to be treated like children who need a home. "I felt all along that these three little hopes, these little embryos, deserved to live just like my daughter did," said Linda Archerd, 62, who donated her embryos to the Pierces. Just about 2% of births in the U.S. are the result of in vitro fertilization, and an even smaller fraction involve donated embryos. However, medical experts estimate about 1.5 million frozen embryos are currently being stored throughout the country, with many of those in limbo as parents wrestle with what to do with their leftover embryos created in IVF labs. Further complicating the topic is a 2024 Alabama Supreme Court decision that said that frozen embryos have the legal status of children. State leaders have since devised a temporary solution shielding clinics from liability stemming from that ruling, though questions linger about remaining embryos. Archerd says she turned to IVF in 1994. Back then, the ability to freeze, thaw and transfer embryos was making key progress and opening the door for hopeful parents to create more embryos and increase their chances of a successful transfer. She wound up with four embryos and initially hoped to use them all. But after the birth of her daughter, Archerd and her husband divorced, disrupting her timeline for having more children. As the years turned into decades, Archerd said she was wracked with guilt about what to do with the embryos as storage fees continued to rise. Eventually, she found Snowflakes, a division of Nightlight Christian Adoptions, which offers open adoptions to donors from people like Archerd. She was also able to set preferences for what families would adopt her embryos. "I wanted to be a part of this baby's life," she said. "And I wanted to know the adopting parents." The process was tricky, requiring Archerd to contact her initial fertility doctor in Oregon and dig through paper records to get the proper documentation for the donation. The embryos then had to be shipped from Oregon to the Pierces' doctor in Tennessee. The clinic, Rejoice Fertility in Knoxville, refuses to discard frozen embryos and has become known for handling embryos stored in outdated and older containers. Of the three donated embryos the Pierces received from Archerd, one didn't make the thaw. Two were transferred to Lindsey Pierce's womb, but just one successfully implanted. According to Dr. John David Gordon, the transfer of the nearly 31-year-old embryo marks the longest-frozen embryo to result in a live birth. He would know: Gordon says his clinic assisted in the previous record, when Lydia and Timothy Ridgeway were born from embryos frozen for 30 years, or 10,905 days. "I think that these stories catch the imagination," Gordon said. "But I think they also provide a little bit of a cautionary tale to say: Why are these embryos sitting in storage? You know, why do we have this problem?" In a statement, Lindsey and Tim Pierce said the clinic's support was just what they needed. "We didn't go into this thinking about records — we just wanted to have a baby," Lindsey Pierce said. For Archerd, the donation process has been an emotional roller coaster. Relief that her embryos finally found a home, sadness it couldn't be with her and a little anxiety about what the future holds next, with possibly meeting the Pierces and the baby in person. "I'm hoping that they're going to send pictures," she said, noting that the parents have already sent several after the birth. "I'd love to meet them some day. That would be a dream come true to meet — meet them and the baby." ___ This story has corrected the first name of Lindsey Pierce in the second paragraph.

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