{"id":8994,"date":"2015-04-13T19:05:57","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T17:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=8994"},"modified":"2015-04-13T19:05:57","modified_gmt":"2015-04-13T17:05:57","slug":"aaa-aaa-aaa-tishoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/aaa-aaa-aaa-tishoo\/","title":{"rendered":"aaa \u2026 aaa \u2026 aaa \u2026 tishoo!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love nature, but for some reason nature doesn\u2019t 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\u2019t even stick my proboscis out of the door without exploding into a salvo of sneezes that would put the guns of Navarone to shame?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"First-Day-of-School-Emotions_Sneezy\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh well, at least I don\u2019t 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<\/strong> (literally: hay cold)<\/em> usually gets going around the beginning of may here, but this year it\u2019s come early (lucky me!)<\/em>, and I\u2019ve already started squirting my trusty Nasonex up my nostrils\u00a0(16 Euro for a minuscule container \u2026 what the hell do they put in it, gold dust?)<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m 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<\/span> many benefits of living here. But<\/span> how common is hay fever here in Italy? Well according to surveys: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn Italia, l’allergia colpisce pi\u00f9 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.\u201d<\/strong>
\n\u201cIn Italy hay fever affects more than 15% of the population, but it\u2019s 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\u00a0one Italian per family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But haven\u2019t you tried natural remedies Geoff? you ask. Well, let\u2019s just say that over the last\u00a045 years or so\u00a0of suffering from hay fever I\u2019ve tried everything. I visited a witch doctor in Siberia, a spiritualist in Nicaragua, and an herbalist in the Gobi desert \u2026. but now I simply pop into the farmacia<\/strong> 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)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Donna-che-starnutisce\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now for those of you fortunate enough not to suffer from allergia ai pollini<\/strong> (I hate you!)<\/em>, here\u2019s a description of the hardships endured by the ‘privileged’ 15%:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNormalmente 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 irritabilit\u00e0.\u201d
\n<\/strong><\/span>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.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

However, you non-sufferers (I still hate you!)<\/em> don\u2019t get off scot free as there is a social cost involved, and I\u2019m not talking about the danger of getting sneezed on, or a potential national shortage of paper hankies.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cle allergie rappresentano un disagio per molti, per\u00f2 il fenomeno interessa anche altri ambiti, come il costo sociale: il periodo di assenza dal lavoro o dalla scuola dovuta alle allergie di stagione \u00e8 mediamente superiore rispetto a quella provocata dall’influenza invernale!\u201d
\n<\/strong><\/span>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!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Vocabolario:<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

raffreddore da fieno<\/strong> = hay fever
\nallergia ai pollini<\/strong> = allergy to pollen
\nallergie stagionali<\/strong> = seasonal allergies
\nstarnutire<\/strong> = to sneeze: <\/span>io starnutisco, tu starnutisci, lui\/lei starnutisce, noi starnutiamo, voi starnutite, loro starnutiscono
\ngocciolare<\/strong> = to drip
\nlacrimare<\/strong> = to weep\/shed tears
\nprudere<\/strong> = to itch: mi prudono gli occhi<\/strong> = my eyes are itching
\n<\/span><\/span>prurito<\/strong> = itching
\ncongestione nasale<\/strong>\u00a0= blocked nose
\ntossire<\/strong> = to cough: io tossisco, tu tossisci, lui\/lei tossisce, noi tossiamo, voi tossite, loro tossiscono<\/strong>
\nla tosse<\/strong> = cough (noun)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u2019ll be looking at natural remedies and strategies for combating le allergie stagionali<\/strong>. Until then \u2026 excuse me for\u00a0a moment while I \u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/span>aaa \u2026 aaa \u2026 aaa \u2026 tishoo!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

I love nature, but for some reason nature doesn\u2019t 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\u2019t even stick my proboscis out of the door without exploding into a salvo of sneezes that would put the guns…<\/p>\n

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