• Question: How dos hayfever affect your eyes and nose?

    Asked by holmenat to PB, Paul, Lyn, Katy on 27 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Peter Balfe

      Peter Balfe answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      That’s a great question! Did you know your eyes and nose are the same thing?

      UH? The tear ducts in your eyes connect directly down into your nose, which is why when you cry you keep swallowing and sobbing. This continuous membrane is the area that becomes inflamed in response to hay fever allergens, it is the tear ducts of the eyes, not the eyes themselves, that are irritated. Weird.

    • Photo: Ee Lyn Lim

      Ee Lyn Lim answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      Pollen in the air gets into your sinuses when you breathe. The sinuses are the cavities inside your head that connect your eyes, nose and mouth, and even your ears. They’re lined with a membrane that’s covered in mucus (you know what the inside of your nose is like), and there are antibodies in the mucus that can start attacking the pollen. Hay fever when this attack gets too fierce for its own good, so that all the membranes in your sinuses get inflamed, and produce lots more mucus and water to try and flush the pollen out – which is why you get runny noses and watery eyes!

    • Photo: Paul Waines

      Paul Waines answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      Hi holmenat-

      hayfever’s a type of allergy. As with all allergies, seemingly harmless things like pollen can fool the body into thinking its under attack by something worse than a pollen grain.

      Pollens everywhere, and if it gets in your eyes or up your nose, its going to stick on the wet (and snotty) bits. With hayfever sufferers, the immune system- which is normally doing a good job of fighting of invaders- then goes a little crazy…

      It starts to produce a chemical called ‘histamine’. This is what causes the swelling and irritation that sufferers feel…

      I’m suffering a bit myself this summer! 🙁

Comments