I love nature, but for some reason nature doesn’t love me! If bees can spend all day with their proboscis stuck in flowers and not suffer any adverse consequences, why is it that I can’t even stick my proboscis out of the door without exploding into a salvo of sneezes that would put the guns of Navarone to shame?

Oh well, at least I don’t suffer as much here in Italy as I did in England, where my allergy lasted from the beginning of June until very late summer. My raffreddore da fieno (literally: hay cold) usually gets going around the beginning of may here, but this year it’s come early (lucky me!), and I’ve already started squirting my trusty Nasonex up my nostrils (16 Euro for a minuscule container … what the hell do they put in it, gold dust?).

I’m hoping that this early start will presage an early finish, but in any case, my Italian style hay fever usually ends by the time the summer really gets going, which is one of the few many benefits of living here. But how common is hay fever here in Italy? Well according to surveys:

“In Italia, l’allergia colpisce più del 15% della popolazione, ma si stima che nell’ultimo decennio la popolazione allergica abbia subito un incremento massivo passando dal 5% al 20% in alcuni territori, quasi un italiano per famiglia.”
“In Italy hay fever affects more than 15% of the population, but it’s estimated that in the last decade the percentage of the population who are allergic has massively increased from 5% to 20% in some areas, almost one Italian per family.”

But haven’t you tried natural remedies Geoff? you ask. Well, let’s just say that over the last 45 years or so of suffering from hay fever I’ve tried everything. I visited a witch doctor in Siberia, a spiritualist in Nicaragua, and an herbalist in the Gobi desert …. but now I simply pop into the farmacia in Pontremoli and pay my 16 Euro, thus rendering some rich unscrupulous pharmaceutical manufacturer even more wealthy, and squirt noxious chemicals up my nose twice a day. (N.B. the preceding paragraph may contain a few slight factual inaccuracies)

Now for those of you fortunate enough not to suffer from allergia ai pollini (I hate you!), here’s a description of the hardships endured by the ‘privileged’ 15%:

“Normalmente si tratta di starnuti frequenti ripetuti ad intervalli piuttosto ravvicinati (per l’80% degli italiani), gocciolamento nasale (58%), lacrimazione (55%) prurito nasale e oculare (54% e 52% dei casi), congestione nasale(48%), ma a volte compare anche la tosse (38% degli italiani), senso di stanchezza e irritabilità.”
Normally the symptoms are frequent sneezing repeated at quite frequent intervals (80% of Italians), dripping nose (58%), running eyes (55%), itching of the nose and eyes (54% and 52% of cases), nasal congestion (48%), but sometimes also coughing (38% of Italians), sense of tiredness and irritability.

However, you non-sufferers (I still hate you!) don’t get off scot free as there is a social cost involved, and I’m not talking about the danger of getting sneezed on, or a potential national shortage of paper hankies.

“le allergie rappresentano un disagio per molti, però il fenomeno interessa anche altri ambiti, come il costo sociale: il periodo di assenza dal lavoro o dalla scuola dovuta alle allergie di stagione è mediamente superiore rispetto a quella provocata dall’influenza invernale!”
Allergies mean discomfort for many people, however, this phenomenon also has an impact on other other areas, such as the social cost: time off work or from school due to allergies is, on average, higher than that due to winter influenza!

Vocabolario:

raffreddore da fieno = hay fever
allergia ai pollini = allergy to pollen
allergie stagionali = seasonal allergies
starnutire = to sneeze: io starnutisco, tu starnutisci, lui/lei starnutisce, noi starnutiamo, voi starnutite, loro starnutiscono
gocciolare = to drip
lacrimare = to weep/shed tears
prudere = to itch: mi prudono gli occhi = my eyes are itching
prurito = itching
congestione nasale = blocked nose
tossire = to cough: io tossisco, tu tossisci, lui/lei tossisce, noi tossiamo, voi tossite, loro tossiscono
la tosse = cough (noun)

Do you belong to that exclusive club of seasonal sniffler and sneezer, and if so, how do you deal with it? In the second part of this article I’ll be looking at natural remedies and strategies for combating le allergie stagionali. Until then … excuse me for a moment while I … aaa … aaa … aaa … tishoo!