Thought I would take on Mamma Kat's writers workshop today and talk about allergies.
I attended college in central Illinois— the heart of the corn belt. I found that I usually caught colds either in March or October— I never was able to get through either month without catching a cold. I felt that most of my colds may have been allergy driven because I noticed that I tended to get them at the same time of year. But there was a pattern to my colds that I found to be very interesting:
I realized that my colds were heavy one year and light the next. For example— I may have a light cold in March and a heavy one in October… but the following year I have a heavy cold in March and a light one in October.
This got me to thinking— the crop rotation in central Illinois is corn one year, soybeans the next… so I must be allergic to either corn pollen or soybean pollen depending on which crop was more in abundance that year. I know what you're thinking… why in March? I believe that this is because that is the time the farmers start plowing their fields and this stirs up the pollen from the previous year's harvest.
This was an interesting hypothesis, but I had no way of proving it. I had no way of determining what the abundant crop was for any given year. Further arguments to this hypothesis is that after I graduated and moved to Chicago the colds stopped… I went about 2 years straight without catching one. Now I think I get my colds from people… not plants.
7 comments:
Very interesting...you and my DH would get along real well. He gets an idea and analyzes it like you...guess that's the scientist in him
That's fascinating. My husband has chronic sinus infections--I wonder if we tracked them whether we could find a pattern like that.
Do you still get the colds from people in March and October?
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i woke up this very morning with a scratchy, sore throat. i think a cold is not far off for me. yay.
well, if you ever find yourself in an allergist's office, you have got to demand they test you for corn and soy, even if you are there for something else.
huh, that's very intersting...thanks for sharing.
My daughter, we found, is allergic to pine pollen. Bummer when we lived in the mountains adjoining National Forest. She was a mess for a month. I'm guessing you have it right. I think people have more of an idea of what is going on in their bodies than they (or the medical community) will give themselves credit for.
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