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Ragweed Food of the Gods

August 23, 2011

Ambrosia is the Latin genus name for ragweed for food of the gods.  Around here, it is a potential scourge for allergy sufferers.  I have graphed this year’s pollen counts so far in August and you can see in purple on the background is total weeds, comprising all the pollens beneat it including ragweed in [...]

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Fall allergy season 2011

August 9, 2011

    Graphed are the ragweed counts in our area for several years with the line graph blue as the average.  Ragweed or Ambrosia is small and giant species and has a bimodal distribution.  Magnified 2000x times is what the pollen looks like.  This is a good reason to try and not rub your eyes when [...]

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Pine pollen cloud & Mickey Mouse?

June 6, 2011

This time of the year in our area, pine and ever green trees and shrubs pollinate, with obvious visible clouds such as this picture below from the European Allergy network.  You literrally see yellow dust on structures near and below these trees.  There is so much pollen in the thousands together you can see them [...]

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How are entomophily, anemophily and pollen allergy related?

May 23, 2011

Entomophily is a form of pollination whereby pollen is distributed by insects, particularly bees, Lepidoptera (e.g., butterflies and moths), flies and beetles. Entomophilous species frequently evolve mechanisms to make themselves more appealing to insects, e.g., brightly-colored or scented flowers, nectar, or appealing shapes and patterns. Pollen grains of entomophilous plants are generally larger than the [...]

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Top 10 pollen allergy tips

May 17, 2011

Tips link.

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Is it the worse allergy season this year?

May 17, 2011

  No the answer is seen in the graph of tree pollens compared over 15 years  I have been counting pollens as a certified pollen counter and report this data to the National Allergy Bureau.  In green is last year 2010 much higher counts than red 2011 this year.  Blue line is average for over a decade.  [...]

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What is phenology?

May 11, 2011

Phenology is the study of periodic plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenology.  My postings scattered throughout our website describes the description of current and relevant events in our environment as I observe how they my affect my, your, and allergy patients lives. [...]

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Spring means start of allergy season

May 3, 2011

Is a May 2, 2011 article from the Fargo Forum.  In it is a study in the extension of the pollen season in the fall in the Fargo Moorhead area quoated in a study I participated in last year.  My blog earlier describes this study further, and is about fall and ragweed pollen season being [...]

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Snow mold, fact or fiction?

May 1, 2011

I do believe snow mold allergy is fact.  http://www.asthma-allergy.com/asthma-and-allergy-info/seasonal-allergies/spring-allergies/ is a link to our Spring Allergies page and near the bottom of the page is a picture of our back yard first week of April 2011 as the snow melted, you can see patches of the lawn with mold, and from our horticulture literature, are named [...]

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Outdoor allergen tips

April 30, 2011

http://www.aaaai.org/patients/publicedmat/tips/outdoorallergens.stm and http://www.aaaai.org/patients/publicedmat/tips/travelingwithallergies.stm are nice review for allergies like pollens and molds.  We can’t control mother nature, but we can live with her is one of my favorite sayings.  Simple measures like these are often just as good as medical treatment for some of my patients.  Don’t look into the wind.  Shower or rinse right away.  [...]

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