Climate Change Is Making Your Allergies Even Worse
Why does pollen make some people sneeze? Will eating honey help with your allergies? And what’s the heat got to do with it?
When one tree loves another tree very much, it releases pollen to fertilize the ovules of that tree, plus whatever other trees happen to be around (you know how it goes). But when the pollen begins to blow, you’re probably not marveling at the miracle of tree reproduction—you’re dreading the allergies that accompany it.
The reason that pollen makes some people sniffle and sneeze is because their immune systems attack it like a parasite, says Leonard Bielory, professor and allergy specialist at Rutgers University Center of Environmental Prediction.
That’s because certain people’s immune systems recognize the protein sequence in pollen as similar to the protein sequence in parasites. When this happens, their bodies attempt to expel the “parasite” through sneezing
