There’s a menace floating about the valley and at Fresno City College. The menace is allergies. One minute a student will be talking to a friend, the next, they are sneezing and rubbing their eyes.
The body immediately responds when it encounters an allergic reaction to a foreign protein, better known as an allergen.
FCC’s nurse and health service coordinator, Linda Albright, says that after the body has been exposed to foreign protein, it sets up a response, which is called a histamine response.
According to the glossary of allergy terms on the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA)’s website, histamine is “a chemical released by cells that causes nearby tissues to become swollen and inflamed.”
Nurse Albright said, “The histamine response is a puffy, tissue response. So it makes your eyes water and your nose feel congested.”
She added, “The proteins in the air or the dirt that makes contact with the skin and are inhaled react to your body. And it causes an allergic reaction in their breathing system.”
The histamine response is all too familiar to FCC student Brittany Poncelet. She says, “My allergy problem begins the moment I get out of bed.”
Poncelet has plastic covers on her pillowcase to help control dust mites and that her method to avoid a sneeze attack is “being outside and inside an even amount and taking antihistamine.”
AAFA’s glossary defined antihistamine as a “class of medications used to block the action of histamines in the body and prevent the symptoms of an allergic reaction.”
For those hoping for a cure from this menace, know tha there are no cures for allergies. Allergies can only be suppressed with the right prevention and treatment.
That is a tough task for those living in the central valley. Most who live in the Fresno area suffer from allergies.
Nurse Albright described the valley’s air as “The worst in the world.” She also said, “If you live in Fresno long enough, you’ll probably have at least mild allergies.”
Some have to change their entire lifestyle to adapt to the allergy weather. According to the AAFA, an estimated 50 million Americans suffer from all types of allergies.
That’s one in five Americans. FCC student David Piercey says he has allergies, but he never found them to have a big effect.
“I mostly sneeze and have watery eyes. No big deal,” he said. Piercey has lived in the valley for years.
Albright said, “Everybody is different. It isn’t like the measles; it’s a reaction of your body to its environment.”
