What Are the Symptoms of a Ragweed Allergy?
Foods in the ragweed family include:
Ragweed is a weed that grows throughout the United States, especially in the Eastern and Midwestern states. Each plant lives only one season. But that one plant can produce up to 1 billion pollen grains. When mid-August nights grow longer, ragweed flowers mature and release pollen.
Usually, ragweed plants grow in fields, gardens, waste areas and on roadsides all over the USA, but they're most common in the eastern and midwestern states.
It is especially important for you to seek treatment if you have allergic asthma and ragweed pollen is a trigger for you. Many people benefit from immunotherapy. This can come in the form of allergy shots or sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT).
Chamomile is a common relative of ragweed. Chamomile leaves are often used for tea, and some people use them to soothe nerves or ease an upset stomach. Many people who are allergic to ragweed may find that drinking chamomile tea or applying lotion that contains chamomile might bother their allergies.
Natural Remedies for Grass and Ragweed Allergies
Many people often confuse Ragweed and Golden Rod and blame both for their allergic reactions. Ragweed is the culprit and not Goldenrod. Even though they both bloom at roughly the same time, they are completely different plants and look quite different. To start, Golden Rod is a perennial and Ragweed is an annual.
Goldenrod flowers grow as an inflorescence in a broad or occasionally narrow pyramidal panicle. They can be anywhere from 5 to 40 cm (2 to 16") high and nearly as wide. There are several to many horizontal branches, the upper sides of which carry numerous, densely-crowded small heads of golden yellow flowers.
Although ragweed and mugwort belong to the same plant family and seem to share a number of cross-reactive allergens, their major allergens are unrelated proteins.
Instead of goldenrod's characteristic yellow flowers, ragweed has smaller, stingy, decidedly green blooms that can be difficult to see, especially from a distance. One reason that ragweed allergies are so pervasive is that the wind can disperse the pollen over an impressive distance.
Ragweed is an upright growing plant that has leaves that look almost fern-like, feathery and green. You will also notice that ragweed leaves look hairy. The flowers on the plant are also useful for ragweed identification. The flowers on ragweed are yellow and long, like streamers.
| Hedgerow Type | |
|---|---|
| Common Names | Ragwort, St. James-wort, Tansy ragwort,, Ragweed, Stinking Nanny/Ninny/Willy, Staggerwort, Dog Standard, Benweed |
Although most of us think of spring as pollen allergy season, approximately 45 percent of people with hay fever and asthma show signs of sensitivity to ragweed pollen. Depending on where you live – by mid-August in the north, and as late as October in the south – ragweed pollen levels peak as the days get shorter.
Those with seasonal spring allergies will usually start to see symptoms in early March and last through May. It's important to start preparing for allergies now before pollen reaches peak spring allergy levels.
Allergy shots are usually a very effective way of treating chronic allergies. It may take some time, but most people find that regular shots can help them when other common treatments haven't worked. Studies show that 85% of people who suffer from hay fever see a reduction in their symptoms when they receive shots.
Like common ragweed, the blooms appear like small bumps. Each flower is only about an eighth of an inch long. The flowers start out green but turn to a yellow-green and then a yellow-brown color as they mature.