WHY YOUR HAY FEVER IS GETTING WORSE (AND HOW TO FIX IT)
You’ve popped your daily antihistamine and dutifully sprayed Beconase up your nose, but you’re still sneezing, coughing and wiping your streaming eyes. Dreadful hay fever symptoms, which affect around a quarter of adults in the UK, can persist for months over the summer. Knowing the triggers that can make it especially bad can help mitigate the worst of them.
“Anything that increases your exposure to pollen will make your hay fever symptoms worse,” says Dr Runa Ali, a consultant in allergy and respiratory medicine at King Edward VII’s Hospital.
“But it’s not just pollen; unexpected things in your daily life that inflame or irritate the nasal passages can also aggravate symptoms.”
Here’s her list of what you should try to avoid to keep your hay fever at bay.
1. Going outdoors to between 10am and midday
“It is common knowledge that spending time outside near trees or freshly cut grass will worsen symptoms, as these are the biggest sources of pollen,” says Dr Ali.
However, many people don’t realise that pollen levels aren’t static throughout the day. They tend to peak during the late morning – typically between 10am and midday – and again in the early evening, around 4pm to 7pm.
“That’s because pollen is released into the air in the early hours, rises with the warming air, and then begins to descend again as temperatures cool later in the day,” she explains.
When convenient to do so, hay fever sufferers with particularly bad symptoms might prefer to stay indoors at these times of day, especially when pollen counts are high, to prevent an attack of symptoms. When venturing outside, wearing sunglasses can help prevent pollen from getting into the eyes, while putting Vaseline around the nostrils can trap some of the pollen before it gets into the airways.
2. Thunder
You may have heard of a “pollen bomb” – the non-scientific term that refers to a sudden spike in the pollen count, often due to hot, dry weather. However, “thunder fever” is a less widely known hay fever phenomenon to be aware of.
“You may think that a thunderstorm would clear the air and improve hay fever,” Dr Ali says. “However, ‘thunder fever’ describes the severe attack of hay fever that can be experienced when the increased moisture and humidity during a thunderstorm causes pollen grains to burst open.”
The result is a higher concentration of pollen in the air and the creation of smaller pollen particles, which can travel deeper into our airways, she explains.
“During thunderstorms, emergency departments are used to seeing people who have both hay fever and asthma for the same reasons,” Dr Ali says. “This ‘thunderstorm asthma’ causes sufferers to experience difficulty in breathing, wheezing and coughing.”
While it may be impossible to completely avoid the effects of “thunder fever”, there are some steps that can help ease symptoms. Keeping your window shut as much as possible, using an air purifier and regularly hoovering can help to reduce pollen levels indoors.
3. Living in a city
Walking though the countryside on a summer’s day may be a hay fever sufferer’s worst nightmare but, counter-intuitively, it is actually cities that can make symptoms much worse. Studies have shown that people living in urban areas report suffering from worse and longer-lasting symptoms than those in rural areas.
“Pollution is well known to aggravate hay fever symptoms,” Dr Ali explains. This occurs in three ways. First: “Changes in the pollen grains are triggered by pollutants, making the pollen stimulate stronger immune reactions,” she says.
Second, polluting chemicals themselves can irritate the airways and cause inflammation, making them more sensitive to pollen when it is inhaled. Third, cities with severe pollution can have a smog, which traps pollen at ground levels, increasing its concentration and worsening symptoms, Dr Ali says.
4. Wearing the same outfit as yesterday
Staying inside to steer clear of a high pollen count may not be effective if you’re wearing clothes that you have already worn outside, Dr Ali says.
“Clothing that has been worn outside during the day can act like a sponge for pollen,” she explains. “This means even garments worn the previous day may still carry enough pollen particles to exacerbate hay fever symptoms.”
For the same reason, drying clothes and bedding outside can also harbour pollen grains, so it’s worth drying clothes inside when possible.
Changing as soon as you get home can help, and keeping the clothing out of your bedroom will avoid the pollen spreading indoors, she notes. “Showering when you get home can also help make a meaningful difference to reducing exposure,” Dr Ali adds.
5. Driving with the windows open
For nervous drivers, the prospect of sneezing while driving can be unsettling. And for hay fever sufferers, lowering the car windows to let in a fresh breeze will only increase the chance of it occurring.
“Driving with open windows is also a way to compound symptoms, exposing yourself to more air, and therefore more pollen,” Dr Ali explains.
As well as keeping the window up, replacing the pollen filter in your car (which is usually located behind the glove box) after every 15,000 miles, or once a year, can help blunt symptoms while driving. Wiping down surfaces in the car and hoovering can also help get rid of any pollen particles that have accumulated inside.
“Cars can be fantastic places to escape hay fever if you close the windows and crank up the air conditioning,” Dr Ali adds.
Dr Ali’s four tips for easing hay fever symptoms
Hay fever sufferers can take a number of practical steps to ease their symptoms effectively. Managing hay fever well doesn’t require drastic measures, just some forward planning and daily habits.
1. Antihistamines and over-the-counter nasal sprays
These remain the most reliable treatments for reducing the body’s allergic response to pollen. Loratadine, cetirizine and fexofenadine are widely available.
2. Keep windows shut
Doing so at night and early in the morning – when pollen levels are at their highest – can minimise exposure. The same applies when driving: keep windows closed and use air conditioning where possible.
3. Steroid nasal sprays
You can get regular steroid nasal sprays from a pharmacy or your GP can prescribe stronger ones. Good options include mometasone and fluticasone. It’s important to understand that these sprays take approximately two weeks to achieve full efficacy, so they should ideally be started a fortnight before the pollen season begins and continued consistently throughout. They are not effective if used sporadically.
4. Immunotherapy
If symptoms persist despite regular use of these medicines, a GP referral for immunotherapy may be the next step. This involves a three-year course of vaccinations using pollen extracts, designed to significantly reduce the immune system’s sensitivity to allergens and convert severe hay fever into a more manageable form. Treatment may be administered either via injections or sublingual tablets and should be discussed with your GP if you think it may be appropriate.
2025-06-12T10:05:25Z