Hay fever symptoms

The most important things in brief

• Those who suffer from hay fever often don't get much out of spring and summer.
• Warm days when it's a bit windy can quickly become a nightmare for allergy sufferers.
• You don't want to go outside and are happy about rainy and symptom-free days.
• But what do these symptoms actually look like - and how do they differ from a normal cold, for example?

Spring and summer are generally considered to be the main times when pollen counts and are therefore the enemies of allergy sufferers. Some plants, however, start distributing their pollen as early as January. About 25 percent of all people in Switzerland are affected by hay fever. But what happens when we encounter the pollen or when the pollen hits us, and what are the typical symptoms?

Attack on the sensitive areas

The human body is both robust and has a lot of vulnerabilities. A statement that also applies to the head. The weak points there are the nose, mouth, ears and eyes - and all kinds of pathogens know and use this. The nose, eyes and mouth in particular are the organs through which viruses and bacteria enter the organism. And indeed bee pollen too.

As soon as the eyes of allergy sufferers come into contact with pollen, a slight itching begins, almost imperceptibly at first. The subconscious reaction: You rub your eyes, just a little -- and it makes things a lot worse. Because this spreads the pollen further, the itching usually becomes more severe and can develop into a more than unpleasant burning sensation. At the same time, the eyes are usually completely red, and it is not uncommon for them to water. The symptoms are similar to those of conjunctivitis, often the eyelids are also swollen.

The nose itches and runs

Bad enough, this eye ailment - but often it is coupled with another unpleasant ailment related to the nose. Because it is usually quite itchy with hay fever and there is almost always a running cold. Incidentally, the itching can spread from the nose to the mouth and throat, and that is more unpleasant than it sounds at first.

Sneezing attacks are often what allergy sufferers are constantly exposed to, some of which last several minutes. People who suffer from a severe pollen allergy often also have severe pain in their limbs. Fever is less common, but it does happen. And all of this means for most of those affected that they don't get enough sleep at night because the symptoms don't always go away even then.

It's not a cold

Now one could argue that these signs point just as well to a normal cold as part of a cold. But there are visible and noticeable differences. Because while the nose tends to get blocked after about two days with a cold, with hay fever it runs practically continuously with clear and liquid secretion.

Even attacks of sneezing are rather rare with a normal cold, there are usually not more than two sneezes at a time. And after two weeks the spook is over - which is not the case with an allergy. The symptoms then last throughout the pollen season, and that can become a real pain.