Tips for allergies and Parkinson's disease

One very frustrating symptom for persons with Parkinson’s disease is the presence of co-existent allergies. It is a doubly frustrating feature of disease as it is known that Parkinson’s folks have been shown to have more “runny noses.” Here are a few tips for allergies and Parkinson’s. We have a video that reviews all the tips for allergies and Parkinson’s on Facebook.

• Know the season. In the United States for example tree pollen is early March, grass pollen kicks up in May, weed pollen in July and ragweed pollen in late August.

• There are free apps on your phone and computer (type the word Pollen in the app store(s). These apps can give you daily updates and also tell you about things like temperature and wind— which may affect the pollen counts.

• A simple solution is to wear a mask outside when the pollen is high and the symptoms are at their worst.

• If the pollen count is heavy remember not to jump into bed as you will bring the pollen with you to bed. Take a quick rinse in the shower before bedtime.

• Nasal steroids (flonase, nasocort and others) are safe and will not result in any side effects.

• If you decide to take a medication such as claritan or allegra remember they can be sedating so consult your doctor. One trick is to break the pill in half and take it at bedtime.

From the app “my pollen forecast,” there are many apps on the store if you type in the word “pollen.”