By Amy Meadows

Brooke Schmidt’s story is an all too familiar one here in the Metro Atlanta area. She’s suffered from “classic hay fever” for as long as she can remember, struggling with a combination of itchy, red, watery eyes and severe nasal congestion annually as frosty winter days give way to warm spring ones. “You don’t realize how nice it is to breathe until you can’t,” she quipped. Her symptoms are so bothersome that she doesn’t wear contacts or mascara and almost never opens the windows in her home, especially during those few weeks every spring when a blanket of yellow pollen covers everything from mailboxes and cars to sidewalks and streets. Through the years, she has taken over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription medications to alleviate her allergy symptoms after she and her family moved to Georgia.

The abrupt onset of Schmidt’s allergic rhinitis (as it’s referred to by doctors) makes sense. According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, Atlanta is one of the country’s top 20 worst cities for spring allergy sufferers. And this year, the organization also bestowed upon Atlanta the designation of Top 2007 Asthma Capital. ….. Read More

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2007 at 5:31 am and is filed under Allergy Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.