CINCINNATI — It’s the first week of spring and with that comes allergy season. But for some, those symptoms started a lot earlier.

Spring allergy season is nothing new to Dr. Ahmad Sedaghat.

“I get allergies in my nose — I get stuffy, I get mucus-y, sometimes very sneezy, and that’s sort of what I know that I’m starting to get exposed to those allergies and they’re starting to come out,” said Sedaghat.

As a UC Health Sinus and Allergies Specialist, he knows firsthand what it’s like to struggle during this time of the year. He uses his expertise and knowledge to help patients in need. 

“Being a patient as well definitely forms how I treat my own patients and how I can almost anticipate when I’m going to start seeing my patients coming back for some of these same problems,” he said.

But this year, his patients are coming in sooner than expected. He said the spring allergy season started early due to the inconsistent warm weather during the winter. 

“The trees are starting to think it’s the spring, and they start to bloom and they start releasing pollen into the air,” he said. “And that’s why we’re seeing spring allergy season occurring earlier and earlier in the year.”

Luckily, there are things you can do to treat those symptoms. There are medical treatments like allergy spray or an allergy shot. Other suggestions include keeping windows closed, changing clothes as soon as you get home and salt water rinses. 

“If you do a salt water rinse, you can wash a lot of that out and you can release the burden and the overall load of allergens that your body is seeing and therefore reacting to,” he said.

Sedaghat believes we have a few more months to go before spring allergy season ends, but that’s all subject to change. 

“When those warm temperatures start to first come out those trees really start blasting out that pollen and it’s historically around mid to late February all the way to late March, but that time frame seems to be shifting or maybe even getting longer,” he said.