Eye Allergies: How to Protect Your Eyes

Allergy sufferers can experience a reaction to pollen nearly any month of the year. However, there are ways to protect an individual’s eyes by listening to pollen reports, avoiding gardening and wooded areas, and using HEPA filters inside an enclosed environment.

Allergy season can be brutal on individuals that suffer from a reaction to pollen in the air that is released from grass, flowers and trees. Part of the symptoms include red itchy eyes that often sting and burn, whether they are indoors or out. Many individuals that suffer from allergies can experience their symptoms almost year round, with only a few months of relief.

Protect Your Eyes

Generally, seasonal allergies are often triggered by various plant life that naturally releases their pollen into the air. For an allergy sufferer, it is nearly impossible to avoid coming into contact with the pollen. However, there are proactive approaches you can take that will significantly reduce your symptoms to allergies and help to protect your eyes. They include:

Pollen Reports – You can usually find a pollen report in the newspaper or on the local news. Any Internet weather site will have pollen counts for your specific region. Anytime the pollen count is indicated to be high, you need to restrict all activities you perform outdoors.
Avoid Outdoor Gardening – By restricting your outdoor gardening and mowing grass, you can diminish your reaction to allergies.
Avoid Wooded Areas – Staying away from wooded areas, forest, and tall grasses will diminish your exposure to pollen.
Close All Windows and Doors – Consider using air-conditioning in warmer climate and heated air in the wintertime. Remember that allergens tend to spread pollen through the air that can easily be circulated through the house. By using a proper air-conditioning filter, you can eliminate severe reactions to seasonal pollen. Without changing the filters you might exacerbate your allergic condition.
Use Only HEPA Filters – Using a HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filter you can effectively remove nearly all allergens floating around in the interior of your home. Remember when using HEPA filters that it is imperative to keep the windows and doors closed at all times.

Following preventative measures is really just your initial step to control your allergies during the season. It is also important to discuss your allergic reactions with your physician, so he or she can provide medications and effective eye solutions to relieve your symptoms.

Over-the-counter allergy relief medications might also reduce your allergic symptoms to make your contact lenses easier to wear. Often less expensive than traditional medicines, many of these solutions can clear up a mild reaction with minimal irritation. Eye drops that contain decongestants and antihistamines also tend to calm down allergies that affect the eyes.