As we head towards our second pandemic, many of us may itch when we give up our masks. But for the 19.2 million American adults who suffer from seasonal allergies, there’s another reason to keep wearing your mask.
While cloth and medical masks protect us well from virus particles, studies show that masks can also be effective at filtering common allergens that are usually floating around in much larger sizes, making them easier to block. Pine pollen, for example, is about 800 times larger than the coronavirus, said Dr. David Lang, an allergist at the Cleveland Clinic. Even before the pandemic, he advised patients with severe allergies to wear a mask outside, especially during prolonged activities such as gardening or gardening.
Using masks to relieve allergy symptoms can take a bit of “trial and error,” said Dr. Purvi Parikh, an allergist and immunologist at NYU Langone Health. But overall: “If less pollen gets into the nose and mouth, the likelihood of an allergy attack is less,” she said.
Israeli researchers recently examined how much of a difference wearing a mask can make for allergy sufferers with mild, moderate, and severe symptoms. Using data from 215 nurses who used surgical masks or N95 masks over a two-week period, they found that nearly 40 percent of 44 nurses with severe allergy symptoms had fewer sneezes, runny noses, and nasal congestion when they had surgery wore or N95 mask. Among the 91 nurses with moderate symptoms, 30 percent improved when they wore a surgical mask; that rose to 40 percent when they wore an N95. Among the 80 nurses who started the study with mild symptoms, 43 nurses, or about 54 percent, felt their symptoms improved when they wore a surgical or N95 mask, said Dr. Amiel Dror, a physician-scientist at Galilee Medical Center and Bar-Ilan Medical School, Azrieli University and lead author of the study.
The use of masks was also more effective in nurses with seasonal allergies than in nurses with year-round symptoms. Wearing a mask didn’t solve the problem of itchy eyes, according to the September report published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Although the results suggest that wearing a mask may relieve allergy symptoms in some people, the researchers noted that more study is needed. It could be that the nurses had fewer symptoms because when they were not working they stayed at home avoiding the crowds during lockdown and therefore had less exposure to allergens in the environment. The fact that wearing a mask covering the nose and mouth was associated with improvement in nasal symptoms but not eye irritation suggests that masking likely helped reduce many allergy symptoms.
Wearing a mask not only filters out allergens, but also makes the air in our nasal cavities warmer and more humid, said Dr. Dror. “We know that dry and cold air sometimes have the ability to trigger a reaction in the nose,” he said. “This is an added benefit of wearing a mask. With all the bad, you can find something good. “
The protection varies from mask to mask, depending on the fit and, in the case of fabric masks, on the weave of the fabric. And if you don’t always wear a mask, you may still be affected by indoor allergens like dust mites or pollen, which are carried through open windows in spring breezes.
“It can help, but it won’t necessarily eliminate all of your symptoms,” said Dr. Sandra Lin, professor of ear, nose and throat medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. “Pretty much everyone wears masks most of the time now, and people are still getting allergy symptoms.”
Here are some more tips to help reduce your symptoms during allergy season.
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Protect your eyes. Dr. Lang recommends allergy sufferers to wear glasses or sunglasses outdoors to prevent allergens such as tree pollen from making direct contact with the eyes.
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Wash and change your mask frequently. “The last thing you want is for allergen to get trapped in it,” said Dr. Parikh. She recommends that patients change when they come home and shower before bed to make sure pollen doesn’t stick to their skin and wash reusable masks frequently. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend washing a cloth mask after each use.
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Find a mask that won’t irritate your skin. Choosing the right mask for an allergy-prone wearer can also be important. People with sensitive skin may react to dyes in some cloth masks and should use fragrance-free detergents. Or choose a surgical or medical mask that is less irritating to the skin. “My allergy sufferers have very sensitive skin because the same animals that make them sneeze or cough can also irritate their skin,” said Dr. Parikh.
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Talk to a doctor if your allergy symptoms are severe. “If people continue to have symptoms that interfere with normal activity – if they are absent from work, absent from school, sleep is disturbed at night – see a doctor,” said Dr. Long. “There are other ways we can help. You shouldn’t suffer unnecessarily. “
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