Pollen

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — From Florida to Texas to Colorado, this is shaping up to be a monster of an allergy season. Everything, it seems, is covered in a fine yellow dust that irritates our lives. Specialists say it is the worst they have seen in years. “We’re just overwhelmed with patients right now,’’ said Dr. Mona Mangat, an allergy specialist in St. Petersburg, Fla. “We’re double- and triple-booked with new patients, trying to work people in because we know how much people are suffering.’’ And they are suffering a lot. Take 5-year-old Sam Wilson of St. Petersburg.

With record high temperatures in Boston this winter, trees are blooming earlier than normal, and that means earlier spring allergies. If you're allergic to certain pollens, your best defense against sneezing, watery eyes, and sinus congestion is a good offense. 1. If you're heading out into the blossoming outdoors, take a nonsedating antihistamine before going out. Don't wait for symptoms to appear since that can render the medication less effective, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology.

It's an intriguing idea, but even a staunch advocate of honey for this use acknowledges that there's virtually no published, scientific evidence to support his view. Tom Ogren, a California horticulturalist and botanist (tloallergyfree@earthlink.net) who advocates local honey (meaning honey harvested within a few miles of where you live), said that bees in any given area "will visit all the flowers that produce pollen" in that area and that this honey will therefore contain pollen from the plants you frequently encounter and may be allergic to. "If you take small amounts daily,...

Galen Rupp might be the only Olympic hopeful who's looking forward to the rain and fog of London. The American 10,000 meter record-holder has exercise-induced asthma, along with severe allergies to pollen and other airborne particles that can make it difficult for him to breathe. Although his training and competition schedules can be captive to pollen counts, he isn't concerned about the Olympics because they will be held in an urban area with a wet climate. "I don't think London should be very bad," Rupp said Friday as he prepared for the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston.

With record high temperatures in Boston this winter, trees are blooming earlier than normal, and that means earlier spring allergies. If you're allergic to certain pollens, your best defense against sneezing, watery eyes, and sinus congestion is a good offense. 1. If you're heading out into the blossoming outdoors, take a non-sedating antihistamine before going out. Don't wait for symptoms to appear since that can render the medication less effective, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

Galen Rupp might be the only Olympic hopeful who's looking forward to the rain and fog of London. The American 10,000 meter record-holder has exercise-induced asthma, along with severe allergies to pollen and other airborne particles that can make it difficult for him to breathe. Although his training and competition schedules can be captive to pollen counts, he isn't concerned about the Olympics because they will be held in an urban area with a wet climate. "I don't think London should be very bad," Rupp said Friday as he prepared for the New Balance Indoor Grand...

Q. Do neti pots really help with colds and sinus infections? A. A neti pot is a simple teacup-like device that has its roots in traditional Indian Ayurvedic medicine, but has gained popularity in the West. A neti pot rinses out nasal passages; the cup is filled with saline solution and then poured slowly into one nostril with the head tilted to the side, allowing the liquid to pass out of the other nostril. You can then repeat the treatment on the other nostril. Robert Saper, director of integrative medicine in Boston Medical Center's...

Here in the United States we have the world's biggest (sequoia), tallest (redwood), and oldest (bristlecone pine) trees. We have somewhere around 750 million acres of continental forests, a collective area roughly 140 times the size of Massachusetts. But in ways both measurable and immeasurable, the young, massively-altered forests we have left are mere ghosts of the original American treescapes, unimaginable swaths of growth that mantled the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

It’s the end of a wonderful meal, and the staff at Bondir is tiptoeing past our table, arms full of woolens. They stop in front of the fireplace, where they unfurl our coats, holding them before the flames until the garments are toasty. It’s a cold night we’re heading into. They want us to take some of the restaurant’s warmth with us. It’s one last thoughtful gesture at this most thoughtful restaurant, a reflection of its chef-owner, Jason Bond. When you’re seated by the fire having a glass of wine before dinner, some little nibble appears at your elbow — perhaps periwinkles to be extracted from their...

A common pesticide used increasingly in recent years for crops such as corn and soybeans is the probable culprit in the destruction of honeybee colonies around the world, a study released Thursday by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health has found. The researchers said they found convincing evidence of the link between the pesticide known as imidacloprid and honeybees abandoning their hives, or colony collapse disorder, which they say began occurring in 2006 on a scale and scope never seen before in the history of the beekeeping industry.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — From Florida to Texas to Colorado, this is shaping up to be a monster of an allergy season. Everything, it seems, is covered in a fine yellow dust that irritates our lives. Specialists say it is the worst they have seen in years. “We’re just overwhelmed with patients right now,’’ said Dr. Mona Mangat, an allergy specialist in St. Petersburg, Fla. “We’re double- and triple-booked with new patients, trying to work people in because we know how much people are suffering.’’ And they are suffering a lot. Take 5-year-old Sam Wilson of St. Petersburg.

It's an intriguing idea, but even a staunch advocate of honey for this use acknowledges that there's virtually no published, scientific evidence to support his view. Tom Ogren, a California horticulturalist and botanist (tloallergyfree@earthlink.net) who advocates local honey (meaning honey harvested within a few miles of where you live), said that bees in any given area "will visit all the flowers that produce pollen" in that area and that this honey will therefore contain pollen from the plants you frequently encounter and may be allergic to. "If you take small...

FARMINGTON, N.H. -- A healthy American chestnut tree discovered on a New Hampshire farm may serve as the "mother tree" to bring back a species nearly wiped out by Asian blight. The tree was found on a 125-acre parcel owned by Nancy and Bill Yates. Bill Yates remembers 60 years ago when American chestnuts lined the road near his home before the tree was all but wiped out on the Eastern Seaboard. American Chestnut Foundation officials hope to use the tree as a way to bring the species back to New Hampshire.