Cedar fever is just the.
This is the common name for a
particular type of allergy,
so allergy is being this this condition.
It's a form of rhinitis or nose inflammation.
Usually it's induced by something irritating
that you had that you inhale from.
The environment often is to do pollen,
but there are many, many,
many, many things that can
induce allergic rhinitis.
Again, this is just a special form
and is caused by the pollen of again,
the common name is the Cedar Mountain cedar.
It's actually not a cedar,
though it's a juniper.
Free, it grows in Central Texas,
but that pollen is produced in absolutely
huge amounts and in the windstorms
that they often crop up in the winter.
Those those fronts frontal systems
can bring that pawn all the way
as Far East as Houston.
Cedar Fever is a bit of a misnomer because
it's not typically does not cause a fever,
and it's not caused by Cedars.
Truly, it's caused by something.
There are trees called ash,
junipers for most of Texas and
other related species called
eastern red cedar and what it is.
It's really an allergic reaction.
These treasonous come here are
releasing pollen into the air,
and when that pollen enters your body
it triggers a histamine response.
Just like really any kind of allergic
reaction and you'll respond with itchy,
watery eyes, runny nose,
sore throat, cough,
those kinds of symptoms is
what you typically see with.
Cedar fever
so cedar fever is really having an allergic
reaction to the pollen from these trees.
It's the the ash, juniper trees and so these.
It's basically an allergic reaction
to pollen which many of us can
get at different times of the year
and so you'll see sometimes these
trees with these clouds of smoke or
puffs of smoke coming from them.
And I think we've seen certainly videos
on the Internet about this as well,
so that's what that pollen is.
There's not much pollen
in the air in the winter.
So roughly mid January to mid
February is cedar fever season
the really the only problem
that's in the air is is cedar,
but again, it's not Cedars. Juniper
partners to areas is really Central
Texas into North Central Texas,
so really the I-35 corridor and points
just West of that and the reason
being that is the part of the state
that has the most juniper trees in
junipers cover about 63 million.
Acres in Texas over a third of the state,
but it's really that corridor I35 and
just West has the biggest problem.
But you can get it anywhere in Texas
because the pollen is windblown.
It can really travel long distances.
In fact, they've tracked pollen from
Central Texas all the way up to Tulsa.
OK, so really no one is outside of the
range where it could possibly occur.
Basically, the symptoms of cedar fever
are going to be similar and pretty
typical of any other types of allergic
environmental allergy symptoms,
so a lot of runny nose, itchy,
watery eyes you may have a sore throat.
Because of the post nasal drip,
not really as common to cause fever,
although somebody if they have really
severe allergies might certainly
have a low grade temperature,
but pretty much these typical
allergy symptoms of itchy,
watery eyes and runny nose
cedar is going to feel like
a really bad allergy attack.
You're gonna often feel malaise.
And you're going to experience
a lot of sneezing, itchy,
watery eyes, runny nose.
You can have some cough,
and you can't have some shortness of breath.
But although it's called cedar fever,
it's very unusual.
If not, you know it would be
unprecedented almost to actually
have fever with with cedar fever,
so in contrast,
so and you're not necessarily going
to get to lose your sense of smell,
you may have some reduction in
your sense of smell because of all,
just, you know,
all the liquid that's coming out of your
nose that prevents you from, you know.
Plugs up your nose but in COVID-19.
The first thing you may experience
is loss of sense of smell,
including complete loss that
may be accompanied by sore
throat and cough with fever.
Definitely with fever.
In addition to the to the Malays,
there's there's a tremendous amount
of overlap between these two,
but if you're having fever and you
really having a severe malaise
with coughing and sore throat,
that's much more likely to be COVID-19.
Early on in the pandemic,
we were seeing much more distinctive
COVID symptoms with fever,
loss of taste and smell.
Cough, you know,
significant muscle aches and fatigue.
I think that overtime the
symptoms have continued to evolve.
We have not seen loss of sense of sense
of taste or smell as much with delta,
and some of the early reports with Omicron
are that the symptoms might actually
be milder to begin with, at least.
So we are hearing about sore throat.
Runny nose cough you know,
not necessarily the itchy watery eyes,
but you can certainly still have some
of the muscle aches and the fatigue.
So I think there's going to be a fair
amount of overlap between what we are
seeing right now with Delta as well.
As you know,
between that and symptoms of cedar fever,
you should be able to reach it readily.
Reach a decision as to whether to just
take your antihistamines in the in the
in the context of a probable cedar
fever or or go for that COVID-19. Test
you think you have cedar fever?
The kind of some of the easiest
things you can do are to take
some kind of an allergy medicine.
I'm doing that right now.
I've had allergy symptoms for over a week.
I'm taking a daily allergy medicine.
There are nasal sprays
available over the counter,
and if you're not getting relief
from those kind of products,
I'd recommend going to the doctor,
maybe seeing if there's further treatment,
prescription allergy medication,
and things like that.
You take it
if you're somebody who really?
Does not or has never had experiences
with cedar fever in the past.
You've never really had allergies to that,
and then this time of the year
you're starting to experience that.
It could certainly still be cedar fever,
but there might be a bigger chance
that you actually had COVID or some
other type of a respiratory virus.
So we think about that.
We think also about whether these
symptoms seem worse for you than normal.
You know, is it something that
you know typically it's milder
symptoms with cedar fever?
You take some over the counter
allergy medication and you can
manage to get through your day.
But yet this time it just seems different.
So if it's something feels different,
those are things to consider
with with COVID as well.
The only real way to know if you have
COVID or not is really to get tested,
and I think that you know if you if
you've been out and about in public.
If you've had any types of exposures to
people with COVID and you know either
in proximity or any large gathering,
and those types of behaviors
that might put you at a higher
risk of being exposed to COVID,
it certainly needs to be on your
mind as part of the differential.
If you really think it's cedar fever,
again, the best way to manage that
is to standard anti histamines.
And steroid nasal sprays
are highly effective.
You may need to take because this pollen
is listed such an intense reaction.
You may need a little bit more and his
men so the typical directions are to take
one pill a day depending on what I would,
what actual antihistamine you're you have,
but you may need for short periods of time.
Need to take that and double and
under medical supervision I would.
I would definitely consult with
your your favorite physician.
Primary care or allergist,
but you might need up to three doses per day,
even higher,
but I would not recommend that
without medical approval from
from a from a trusted physician,
those higher doses.
But that can be the trick to
surviving a really bad month
up to a month of cedar fever.
It's just higher doses,
even more than what's typically recommended.
Again,
I would recommend a physicians input
if you want to go to this higher doses,
responses to allergens, or really.
So individualist it's really hard to say.
Some folks have really,
really bad responses.
Other folks could live in
Texas their whole life,
never be affected by this annual occurrence.
So it's really hard to say who's
going to be hit the hardest.
From personal experience, I'll tell
you that I grew up in Central Texas.
I never really had an issue with it
until I moved away for a few years.
And when I came back,
it's been pretty much every winter
ever since I've been eating student
over the counter allergy medication.
You know it's probably worthwhile
having a conversation with your
primary care doctor or even an allergy
specialist if that's somebody that
you know you've seen in the past,
or you might need to see moving forward so
they certainly might have some additional
recommendations about whether or not the
steroid nose sprays might be effective.
Or are there other types of stronger
allergy medications that you can take?
The main thing, though,
is that if you do have a runny nose and
a cough to keep your fluids contained,
you know.
So if you are coughing or sneezing.
Do that in your elbow, washing your
hands meticulously using hand hygiene.
And of course,
you know if you're not certain.
Just always keep a mask on,
especially when you're around
others who you know at work
or at school or out in public.
Two points I would hit on one is with
the concern about COVID-19 this year.
If you are experiencing
symptoms experiencing symptoms,
haven't had these issues in the past.
Not a bad idea to go out and get
tested just to make sure that you
don't have something else that you.
Be spreading around.
And then the other point I'd like
to hit on is a lot of folks ask
about juniper trees in general,
there's this really common misconception
that they're not native to Texas,
which is false.
They are a native component of our ecosystem.
They've been around longer
than we've been here,
but we do definitely see an increase
in juniper trees because of some
of our Land Management activities.
They're growing in areas
that used to be grasslands.
Things like that.
So that's why we maybe see more
than we get necessarily.
Used to but they are a natural native
component of our text ecosystem,
so we talked about antihistamines
and then intranasal steroids,
but also just rinsing your nose out
with salt water using what's called
a neti pot or just a nasal spray.
Of that, salt water is
that you can live with.
The counter is very very helpful,
and flushing out and physically removing
the public can be incredibly irritating,
but also there are.
There are other prescription or other more
advanced treatments that are available,
including you know immunotherapy
through an allergist and
there's some prescription drugs.
Something called Montelukast can be very,
very helpful in some people that have
particularly difficult to manage disease,
so just a few things to say about managing.
It's always important to really be
vigilant about the symptoms that you have,
and if anything seems off.
Or unusual, or even if it actually does,
seem pretty typical for what you have before.
I think, for the safety of others around you,
it's always to think about whether
or not this could possibly be COVID,
and to get yourself tested.