Facts, Prevention, and Relief for Beech Tree Allergies for 2024
Beat your allergies forever.
Get Started With WyndlyBeech trees are tall, common trees known for their silvery-gray and smooth bark. Their timber is often used in flooring, furniture, and several other applications. Beech trees are also allergenic. Though they’re not the most allergenic tree species, they can still cause people some trouble when they start producing pollen in spring.
As with most tree allergies, beech allergies are quite manageable. In many cases, you can even treat your beech tree allergy. Wyndly can help you with your beech tree allergies. Our doctors can provide personalized physician care for a variety of seasonal allergies.
Schedule a consultation with Wyndly today to get started, or read on to learn more about beech allergies.
What Is a Beech Tree Allergy?
A beech tree allergy occurs when your immune system mistakes beech tree pollen as a threat, even though it’s a harmless substance. This immune system reaction results in the body releasing antibodies, histamine, and other chemicals to fight the perceived invader. Your allergy symptoms are a result of your body trying to fight off the pollen that enters your airways.
Common Symptoms
There are several common allergy symptoms you may experience if you have beech tree allergies. Depending on the individual, symptoms can vary in intensity and frequency. Your symptoms are likely going to be at their worst when allergy season is peaking.
Here are some of the most common symptoms you might experience:
- Runny nose
- Coughing
- Congestion
- Sneezing
- Scratchy throat
- Itchy eyes
- Watery eyes
- Aggravated symptoms if you have asthma
Take precautions on days when the pollen count is high to avoid worsening your symptoms.
Where Is Beech Found?
Beech trees are tall, typically growing up to 60 to 75 feet, and can be found widely dispersed throughout the Northern Hemisphere. In the United States, beech trees are most commonly found in the Midwest and eastern states. Beech trees are wind pollinated, and the pollen is very light, making it easy for the pollen to travel for miles. This makes it a difficult allergen for allergy sufferers to avoid.
When Is Beech Pollen Allergy Season?
Beech pollen allergy season usually starts in March and will taper off in May. This makes it a fairly short allergy season and since the pollen isn’t extremely allergenic, the season is sometimes mild for allergy sufferers.
Foods to Avoid
Beech pollen can be cross-reactive with the proteins in certain foods. This means you may experience an allergic reaction known as OAS when you eat beech-related foods. OAS or oral allergy syndrome causes your mouth to feel itchy or tingly after consuming these foods. Typically, these symptoms will subside on their own very quickly. However, there is also the chance you could have a more severe allergic reaction to food, especially nuts. If your allergic reaction becomes more severe, make sure to seek emergency medical attention right away.
These are some foods you may want to avoid if you have beech tree allergies:
- Apple
- Cherry
- Peach
- Hazelnut
- Peanut
- Carrot
- Celery
- Soy
- Strawberry
Testing and Diagnosis
When it comes to diagnosing airborne allergies, it can be difficult to ascertain the exact cause. Allergy seasons often cross over and the variety of pollen in the air makes it almost impossible to determine which is your primary trigger. With an allergy test, you don’t have to rely on guesswork. Wyndly makes allergy testing convenient with our at-home allergy tests. You can buy your at-home allergy test from Wyndly today.
Here’s how different allergy testing options work.
Old-Fashioned Method: Skin Prick Test at Your Doctor’s Office
Skin prick testing requires you to go to the doctor to find out your allergen triggers. It’s often uncomfortable, and it takes time out of your day. You’ll go to the doctor’s office, they’ll administer a test where they prick or scrape your skin with a needle tipped with different allergens, and then they’ll observe the areas they pricked for itchiness, redness, or swelling. All in all, it’s not a pleasant experience. Instead, you can save yourself time and pain by getting an at-home test.
Modern and Efficient At-Home Method
- Order Wyndly’s at-home allergy test. We ship our CLIA-certified test straight to your door.
- Take the allergy test and send it back to us. Just do a quick finger prick test to provide us with a blood sample and mail it back when you’re done.
- Receive your personal allergy profile. Our doctor will interpret your results, create an allergy profile, and walk you through your personalized treatment plan.
Unlike self-diagnosis, an allergy test can reveal the full breadth of your allergies. This way you know exactly what you’re allergic to and how you can treat your symptoms.
Treatment and Remedies
Allergy season can make your everyday activities and routines miserable. Instead of suffering through your symptoms, there are various options for remedying and even treating them. Here are some treatments and remedies you may find useful:
Limiting Exposure
A good first step for managing your allergy symptoms is to limit your exposure to your primary allergy triggers. Pollen can be hard to avoid completely, but there are still methods that may lessen the severity or frequency of your symptoms. Such as:
- Check the pollen count: The pollen count tells you the concentration of pollen in the air that day. Checking the pollen count in the morning is a good idea, so you can plan for the day. If the pollen count is high, try to stand indoors as much as possible and wear a mask when you leave the house.
- Trim beech trees: Trimming beech trees reduces their ability to produce pollen. If you trim the beech trees in your yard, you can cut down on pollen levels around your home.
- Keep your house as clean as possible: Cleaning during allergy season can help you keep pollen out of the house. It’s recommended to use a HEPA-filter vacuum and dust hard surfaces with a wet rag to get rid of pollen.
- Keep your windows closed: When the weather is nice, it’s tempting to keep windows open. But this is a sure way for pollen to get in. Make sure to keep windows closed during allergy season and run your A/C instead.
- Shower and wash clothes: Pollen can stick to your hair, skin, and clothes. Make sure to rinse off when you get home and throw your clothes in the hamper. If you don’t have time to rinse off, you can always wash your hands and face.
- Remove your shoes: When you get home, you should take off your shoes so you don’t track in pollen.
- Wipe off your pets: It’s a good idea to wipe off your pets when they come into the house from being outside, so you can get pollen off them. It might be a good idea to give them more baths during allergy season.
- Avoid the aforementioned foods: Do your best to avoid beech-related foods.
Medications
Medications can help you temporarily manage symptoms when you’re not getting enough relief from limiting exposure. Here are some options you can try:
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Over-the-counter: Over-the-counter medications are the most common option. These OTC allergy meds are usually effective at managing most allergy symptoms for short-term relief. Here are some of the options available:
- Antihistamines: Antihistamines are effective at temporarily inhibiting the histamine response, providing short-term relief from your symptoms.
- Nasal sprays: If you have runny and stuffy nose symptoms, nasal sprays are usually a good solution. They can help relieve inflammation and swelling.
- Eye drops: If you have itchy or watery eyes, eye drops can help provide some measure of relief by flushing out pollen.
- Prescription: Sometimes OTC allergy medications won’t be enough. If that’s the case, you can speak to your doctor about prescription options. You should also consider immunotherapy.
Sublingual Immunotherapy
Sublingual immunotherapy is a treatment for allergy symptoms, rather than just a way to temporarily manage symptoms. With sublingual immunotherapy, your immune system will gradually learn to ignore allergy triggers, instead of responding with an allergy reaction. This is done by introducing small, gradually increasing doses to your system with drops or tablets under the tongue. This is a safe and effective alternative to allergy shots, which require needles and a visit to the doctor for each dose.
Get Long-Term Relief With Wyndly
If you’re wanting to find long-term beech allergy relief, then choose Wyndly. We can set up an allergy consultation to find your allergens and learn your allergy profile. With this, our doctors can create a personalized allergy treatment plan to bring you lifelong relief from your symptoms.
Schedule your allergy consultation with Wyndly today to get started!
Beech Tree Allergy FAQs
Below are some frequently asked questions about beech allergies.
Can I just get rid of beech trees from my yard?
While getting rid of beech trees from your yard might reduce some of the pollen concentration in your immediate area, it won’t do much overall since the pollen from nearby trees can still easily reach you. Plus, beech trees can be enormous and very difficult to remove. Trimming branches may help, but generally, symptom management or treatment is the best route.
Can I move to a state without beech trees?
Beech trees are rarer in the Western United States, so this could be an option. However, it may be easier to treat your allergies than move to a different part of the country.
When will beech pollen be the worst?
Beech pollen is highly concentrated from March to May.
