ROANOKE, Va. – If you’ve been outside lately, you might have noticed some of the beautiful blooms already on trees, but for some, those flowers have consequences.
Trees are already full of color in the Roanoke Valley, and that means more patients to see for LewisGale Physician Assistant Crystal Barksdale.
She said she’s seen an increased number of outdoor allergy sufferers in her Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) office.
“A lot of what we are seeing right now is people coming in with a lot of sinus congestion and post-nasal drainage, and some red, watery eyes,” Barksdale said.
Usually, those symptoms don’t come quite as early, but she said tree pollen is higher than normal this time of year.
“A lot of times we will get a pretty decent winter with a few snows that can really have an opportunity to kind of clear the air so to speak and get some of the pollen knocked down,” Barksdale said.
She said our area can be especially bad for triggering sneezes, coughing, and all of the common allergy symptoms.
“Roanoke is kind of a bowl so to speak,” Barksdale said. “Because there’s a lot of mountains around us, so everything tends to get trapped in here, and we do have a lot of trees, and grasses, and I think those are a lot of the primary things that people have issues with here.”