Spring is blooming, and so are allergies. What to expect this season

With allergy season lasting longer and pollen levels rising, it's more important than ever to manage your symptoms and find relief as the season ramps up.

With snow melting and the first buds of spring emerging, many Canadians are eager to shake off the winter blues. But for those with seasonal allergies, the return of warmer weather may also mean the start of sneezing, itchy eyes and runny noses.

The first day of spring is Thursday, March 20, and this season often brings melting snow that releases mould spores, along with budding trees that unleash pollen, triggering seasonal allergies.

“Allergy season is creeping up, pollen count is going up and people are starting to display their yearly symptoms,” Dr. Birinder Narang, a family physician, recently told Global News Morning BC.

Since allergy season overlaps with the tail end of cold and flu season, he said it can be tough to tell whether it’s allergies or a virus causing the symptoms.

Common symptoms of seasonal allergies include sneezing, an itchy nose and throat, nasal congestion, a runny nose, coughing and watery, itchy and reddened eyes.

“Sometimes it can be pretty difficult to tell if it’s a virus, like a cold or allergies…. A cough can be from a cold but if someone has allergies or asthma that could be from that,” Narang said. “Stuffy nose or runny nose could be either, feeling run down or tired could be either.”

Normally, with allergies, you shouldn’t get a sore throat, and itchy eyes are not typically a symptom of a cold — unless it is conjunctivitis, he added.

And if you’re suffering from allergies this season, you’re not alone — about one in five Canadians struggle with respiratory allergies like hay fever, according to Asthma Canada.