Seasonal Asthma: How Seasonal Allergies Affect Your Asthma

Spring in bloom is a beautiful time of year — unless you have allergies and asthma. For many, seasonal changes aggravate allergies and bring on asthma symptoms, known as seasonal or allergic asthma.

In reality, seasonal asthma can happen in any season and is linked to weather, changes in the environment and air, and allergens. Understanding your triggers and seasonal patterns can help you better manage your asthma. Here’s what to know.

What Is Seasonal Asthma?

Seasonal or allergic asthma happens when environmental triggers or allergens cause a flare-up in your symptoms. These triggers may worsen during some times of the year when you’re more likely to have seasonal allergies.

Some allergies may cause asthma symptoms all year, such as animal dander or dust mites. However, seasonal asthma tends to happen when your seasonal allergies peak, which may be spring or fall allergies for some. Symptoms may get better the rest of the year, but they can also return.

Symptoms of Allergy-Induced Asthma

Allergic asthma has the same basic symptoms as other types of asthma, though they’re different for everyone. Common symptoms include:

• Coughing
• Wheezing
• Shortness of breath
• Chest tightness
• Tiredness
• Itchy, red eyes
• Runny or stuffy nose
• Sneezing

Symptoms might be worse at night and during exercise or a seasonal asthma attack.

What Triggers Seasonal Asthma?

Many triggers can cause seasonal asthma symptoms, from outdoor allergens to air pollution and weather changes. However, indoor allergens also commonly impact symptoms.

Pollen

Pollen is the small seeds or tiny grains from flowering plants, trees, and grasses. Certain plants release pollen at specific times of the year, and you may even see it floating in the air outside.

If you have a pollen allergy, breathing in these tiny seeds may cause hay fever symptoms, such as watery, red, and itchy eyes, sneezing, stuffy or runny nose, and headache. Inhaling pollen may irritate your airways and aggravate your asthma symptoms, too.

Tree pollen is a common spring allergen and may cause asthma in the spring. However, other pollens peak during different seasons:

• Late spring and summer: Grass pollen
• Late summer and fall: Weed and ragweed pollen
• Winter: Cedar or Ashe juniper pollen, common in Texas and often called cedar fever

Mold Spores

Mold spores are the tiny cells of fungi that spread and help the fungi grow. These spores float through the air and are easy to breathe in, but can trigger allergy and asthma symptoms.

Mold is almost everywhere and hard to avoid. Damp areas are more likely to grow mold, both inside and out, making it an indoor and outdoor allergen.

Indoor mold may aggravate your allergy and asthma symptoms year-round. However, exposure to mold peaks during the late summer and fall when it’s damp or humid. Inhaling these spores can trigger allergic symptoms and airway inflammation or irritation.

Cold Air

Cold, dry air often provokes winter asthma. Breathing in cold and dry air causes the muscles and smaller airways in your lungs to spasm and leads to irritation. Your body tries to keep the airways open, but the irritation and spasms may cause coughing, wheezing, and chest tightness.

Windy, cold air may also trigger symptoms, along with sudden changes in temperature or drops in air pressure. Strong wind can stir up mold spores, too, aggravating your allergies.

Hot and Humid Air

Hot air and humidity can cause your airways to narrow or tighten, making it hard to breathe. As you’d expect, the effects of high humidity and heat are more common in the summer, and may be intense in Texas’ hot conditions, especially coastal cities like Houston.

Additionally, exercising in the heat may aggravate symptoms. While some people only have asthma symptoms during exercise, known as exercise-induced asthma, you may have a flare-up from breathing in more mold spores and pollution while exercising outside.

Indoor Allergens

Your home is another source of indoor allergens, such as pet dander, dust and dust mites, and fragrances. These substances trigger your immune system and irritate your airways, adding to asthma flare-ups.

Other pollutants, such as cleaning chemicals, fumes from gas stoves, or tobacco smoke, may also cause irritation. These allergens and pollutants are more likely to cause problems in the winter when you spend more time inside.

Air Quality

Poor air quality is another contributor to seasonal asthma. Pollution from traffic exhaust, ozone, smoke, fumes, soot, and other substances triggers asthma symptoms. These pollutants irritate the airways and can get deep into your lungs, making it hard to breathe or causing coughing and wheezing.

Air quality is a problem year-round, but it may especially trigger flare-ups in summer and winter for a few reasons:

• Summer: High heat and intense sun raise ozone levels.
• Winter: Warm air traps cold, polluted air near the ground.

Wind may also affect pollution. For instance, on still days, pollutants aren’t dispersed, which causes stagnant air and smog. On the other hand, strong winds might stir up dust and allergens. These, combined with the Texas high heat in summer and rapid shifts from warm to cold in winter, may affect symptoms.

Seasonal Asthma Treatment Options

There is no cure or prevention for asthma or seasonal asthma, but you can treat and manage it to control your overall symptoms. One of the key elements of treatment is to understand your triggers and typical patterns. Triggers are different for everyone, but you can often lower your need for asthma medications when you avoid triggers or plan for them with treatment.

Creating an asthma action plan with your health care provider helps you identify these triggers and outline the steps you’ll take to manage them and your asthma flare-ups. Your provider will help you understand your medications and when to get medical help, such as at urgent care.

Seasonal asthma treatment often involves:

• Medication for asthma and allergies
  • Antihistamines
  • Inhaled corticosteroids
  • Bronchodilators
  • Rescue inhalers
  • Allergy shots
• Reducing indoor allergy triggers
  • Keep your home clean and dust-free.
  • Use a HEPA filter.
  • Consider air purifiers.
• Relieving mold exposure symptoms
  • Limit outdoor exercise.
  • Use air conditioning.
  • Avoid dehydration in the summer.
• Recognizing early signs and symptoms
• Going to urgent care for mild symptom relief

For severe asthma or symptoms that don’t improve with medication, call 911 or go to the ER.

Get Professional Care To Relieve Your Symptoms All Year-Round

For most people, seasonal asthma symptoms follow a pattern. Certain weather or temperature changes, pollutants, and indoor or outdoor allergens may spark flare-ups during specific seasons. Understanding these factors and taking action can help manage flare-ups and improve your symptoms.

If you need help with mild asthma symptoms or flare-ups, Next Level Urgent Care is here to help. Walk into one of our locations in Houston, Austin, or San Antonio or book an appointment online.