when trees weeds and grasses mate they
make a mess
thousands of pollen grains their
reproductive material fly into the air
and anyone with allergies knows you
don't get too close or else but what is
it about that fluffy stuff that sets off
the summer sneezes anyway
[Applause]
each year 26 million Americans
experience an allergic reaction
sometimes nicknamed hay fever the
culprit pollen and to help itself get
where it needs to go pollen grains are
extremely light and sticky the wind can
carry them for thousands of kilometres
across state lines and over mountains
you can even find pollen over 600
kilometres out to sea with not a tree in
sight in other words the sticky stuff
gets everywhere and sometimes it sticks
to places that it shouldn't like your
close car and especially your eyes nose
and lungs and that is when the trouble
starts
your sniffling and your coughing and
your eyes are running an itching dry
nose buggery nose watery eyes but here's
the odd thing about pollen on its own
it's harmless it's not a virus or a
parasite that can give you a disease or
damage your organs it only becomes a
problem when your body sees it as one
our body reacts to it basically the
protein and the pollen and for some
reason our body has recognized it as
foreign your immune system has a
merciless procedure for dealing with
intruders the first line of defense our
y-shaped proteins called antibodies
they're like a built-in security system
that guards your nose eyes and mouth
along with other tissues when they bump
into a grain of pollen they sound the
alarm now their main goal is to get that
pollen out of your system which they do
by sending a rush of white blood cells
to the scene which then produce a
chemical called histamine histamine has
a few ways to get the job done
first it irritates your nose forcing you
to sneeze which blasts some of the
pollen away
second it expands your blood vessels
opening tiny gaps between the cells that
make up the wall opening a path for a
squadron of immune cells to squeeze out
and attack the pollen grains finally it
tells your nose to make more mucus which
traps the invader and flushes it out of
your nasal passages
mission accomplished histamine also
flushes out your eyes in a similar way
it irritates your eyes causing them to
swell and tear up and if pollen reaches
your lungs histamine irritates the
lining causing you to cough it out the
end result you're a snotty miserable
mess and since different plants
reproduce at different times in the
spring and summer the assault can last
for months but hey at least now your
system is free of that dangerous what
was it again pollen now pollen isn't the
only irritant that can cause this type
of reaction people react the foods they
react to pollens they react to chemicals
directly antibiotics they react to
beestings all of those are the same type
of immune reaction however pollen is one
of the most common allergies but
scientists aren't entirely sure why what
they do know is that some people have
more sensitive immune systems than
others and that's based on a bunch of
factors like genetics when you are first
exposed to pollen and how much of it you
were exposed to all of that influences
what your body is going to do is what
kind of reaction is going to have
regardless of how you ended up with
allergies one thing is clear they suck
but you're going to be really miserable
and some people are very very
uncomfortable and I mean it leads to
lost work in law school seasonal
allergies cost the u.s. 18 billion
dollars a year in lost work hours and
medical bills and there's more bad news
climate change is making it even worse a
recent series of studies showed that
over the past 20 years as global
temperatures have climbed pollen counts
have risen with them plus the earlier
and longer periods of warm weather have
stretched prime pollen season out longer
than ever yes if it's warmer which is
what climate change is doing you're
gonna have more of those pollinating
species thriving the good news is there
are ways to keep the summer sneezes at
bay like antihistamines these meds grab
onto those irritating histamine
molecules preventing them from working
hence the name antihistamine so as the
skies cloud with yellow horror dust and
one counts skyrocket grab a tissue pop
an antihistamine and hope that winter
returns soon
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