Pollen Protection

I found a great statement about pollen from Achoo Allergy: "Trees, weeds, plants, and grasses release small reproductive cells called pollen, which cause allergic reactions for millions of people. Most pollen are light enough to be windborne and are found everywhere, both indoors and out." 

Which totally confirms what I've known for years—pollen is a predator. And there's nowhere to hide.

I'm struck by the duality of early spring, where my expectation level and excitement grows by leaps and bounds with each bloom on the Cherry trees, and every lovely daffodil and tulip and hyacinth ... and then crashes when the pollen duststorms whirl down the street.

Pollen is everywhere—in the weeds, grass and trees. It's a fine, grainy powder consisting of the male gametes of seed plants. And when it floats freely through the air or is carried from plant to plant by bees and insects to the female reproductive structures in plants it's called pollination. It's vital to the survival and propigation of, well, everything green. Wikipedia even notes that "pollen is first found in the fossil record during the Devonian period, and increases in abundance to the present day."

So if you think about it, that's about 400 million years of every living, breathing animal suffering from hay fever, the allergy to pollen. The Allergy Relief Learning School tells us that some common symptoms of pollen allergy include prolonged sneezing, stuffy nose, itchy eyes, nose, throat and mouth, headaches and sore throat. And since pollen is unavoidable over the next few weeks, you've got to learn how to live with it.

I once had a friend who would wear a face mask and run from the house to her car and back. I take over-the-counter loratadine daily during the peak pollen times (check out The Weather Channel's Pollen Count for Raleigh, and we bathe our dog at least once a week ... but it still catches us.

• Got any crazy (but workable) ideas about how to protect yourself from pollen?