Massachusetts Physicians
Massachusetts physicians warned that hay fever sufferers who stay indoors in autumn to avoid ragweed pollen may actually aggravate other allergies. The allergy specialists, from the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, found that the number of house dust mites greatly increases in the early fall, coinciding with the peak ragweed season in the Northeast and elsewhere. Ragweed sufferers who are also allergic to dust mites may thus be unwittingly surrounding themselves with allergens by staying inside, the doctors told the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the American College of Allergy and Immunology in Chicago. Patients who report seasonal allergic symptoms in August and September may be misdiagnosed as allergic to rag weed, when in fact dust mites may be the symptom trigger, the researchers suggested.