Allergy to ambrosia, a wild plant that damages your health and can turn your vacation into a nightmare, arrives several weeks in advance.
Or when a weed becomes responsible for a public health problem.
Suddenly, when you return from vacation, your nose starts to run; The throat tingles, the head is heavy, the eyes red and watery. You sneeze constantly. In short, it’s not in great shape.
Don’t look, nothing very original, you are in the middle of an allergy crisis… Besides, you made the diagnosis since it reminds you of the hay fever to which you are subject every year. Allergies at harvest time…there is reason to be surprised. But the doctors had gotten used to this unusual time. You will have to get used to it, with climate change the plant also adapts and strikes earlier.
1 in 10 French people concerned
Because if according to the world health organization, allergy has become the 4th disease on the planet in terms of the number of people affected and concerns about a third of French people, the majority of them do not actually feel concerned. ‘at the time of pollination, May June for most of our regions. These unpleasant back-to-school symptoms are the effects of the new pollen star, ragweed, to which an estimated 10% of the population is susceptible, making it an underrecognized public health problem. This plant strikes much later than the others. From mid-August to mid-October, with maximum intensity in September.
An unknown allergy
Ambrosia, a pretty name for a weed in the sunflower family, arrived in our country in the mid-eighteenth century in a batch of Canadian ferns. It has remained quiet for a hundred years, because its seeds are not provided with the usual devices allowing them to be transported by the wind and their thorns are not used for them to cling to the fur of animals. On the other hand, they can be carried away by water and stick perfectly to the soil transported by the soles of shoes, the tires of trucks, tractors, and all the machinery that works the soil. It is believed that it was the large construction sites of the 1950s that allowed it to develop, mainly in Rhône-Alpes when the motorways were built, but now in an anarchic way throughout France, to the point of worrying our health authorities. . At each stage of its development, ragweed can be confused with other plants that do not have such significant health drawbacks. To fight effectively against it, it must therefore be recognized with certainty; the best solution is to go for a walk on the official website of the lady… www.ambroisie.info, which declares: the RNSA (National Aerobiological Surveillance Network) announces each year the estimated date of the first day of pollination of ragweed in the Lyon region. This year, it is expected to occur on August 10.
The fight against ragweed, the seeds of which persist for several years in the soil, is part of the National Environmental Health Plan.
Deputies who alert, the general direction of health which mobilizes against a subject little exploited by the media… One could fear to be again confronted with the precautionary principle if ambrosia were not unanimously recognized as a health problem, environmental , agricultural and major land development, which is progressing worryingly in different regions. It has now invaded an area ranging from Bordeaux to Bucharest
Simple support
It only takes a few grains of pollen per cubic meter of air for symptoms to appear in sensitive people, but if we identify that the problem is ragweed, we can follow a desensitization treatment. Autumn allergies should think about it. It’s simple, effective and painless. And when the cause is well identified, which is the case with ambrosia, the results can be spectacular.
They say that to protect yourself from pollen you have to close the windows… This is a mistake! Take advantage of the last days of sunshine to do the big autumn cleaning of the house – especially the bedroom – because, as always in medicine, the future depends on prevention. Fighting against allergies means declaring war on house dust mites. Open the windows wide, beat the blankets and bedding, vacuum everything. And do the same in the city center; with the wind no place escapes the allergens of nature.
