Spring has come. Plants and flowers have started to bloom around campus and the color of flowers accompanies the pleasant weather. But for some people, it’s a season of struggle—fighting sneezing, watery eyes and running noses caused by the seasonal allergic rhinitis, otherwise known as hay fever.

Here at SF State, students make visits to the health center around this time of the year to seek assistance and to receive treatment for their allergies, according to Albert Angelo, a health educator at the Department of Preventive Medicine for Student Health Services.

Angelo said the total number of students who have been affected by hay fever is unknown, however. Since many students come in with symptoms similar to that of cold or flu, it makes it difficult for the health center to put them in the category of allergies. Students who were diagnosed with allergies last year might not come back this year after they learn how to self-treat, Angelo said. This makes it difficult to come up with accurate numbers of how many students are affected by hay fever.

Hay fever is a seasonal allergy caused by the exposure to pollen from certain types of trees, plants, grasses, weeds and mold that trigger some people to have allergic reactions, said Angelo. Today, hay fever affects approximately 18 million Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site.

“It’s been miserable,” said Larry Lawrence, a senior broadcasting and electronic communication arts major. “I wake up every morning with eyes that are burning, a face that’s itchy and sneezing on top of it.”

He said he’s had allergies since his childhood and as he has aged, he has also developed seasonal allergies.

As senior liberal studies major Jason Carreras ran around the track on campus, his throat and eyes became itchy and he had trouble breathing when the wind picked up and blew through the trees.

“I realized that I forgot to take my pills. If I don't take Zytec (a type of allergy medication), it would happen every day,” said Carreras.

His allergic reactions started in early March, he said.

When Lawrence visited Arizona and Los Angeles over spring break, he said he didn’t have any allergic reactions. However, when he returned to San Francisco, his symptoms returned.

“Seasonal allergies are a result of not only the time of the year, but location as well,” said Angelo.

He said people who are allergic to pollen are going to have different reactions depending on where they live.

“People who live in a desert versus people who live in San Francisco or (on) the East Coast may experience different reactions as there are different types of plants that are out there,” said Angelo.

The issue is how much pollen is in the air. The weather, the amount of precipitation, and how soon plants start to grow have a hand in determining pollen counts.

“Especially here in San Francisco, where it’s windy and it rains a lot, it could kick up the pollen,” said Angelo.

He also added that air quality, or urban pollution, could also contribute to making conditions of hay fever worse.

As there are different allergic reactions to different plants, people who have allergies have different treatments and options.

“It depends on what the person is allergic to. It might not be an allergy to all allergens, but certain pollen or plant material or a combination of different plants.”

Angelo said it’s important to know what allergen to avoid.

“Your body is fighting something that’s generally harmless. But in that fight, you are creating a byproduct called histamine that causes swelling and running eyes. Allergies occur because your immune system is over reacting. It (usually) overreacts when you are younger,” said Angelo.

Medication is a way to calm down reactions. A medication called an antihistamine is one of the drugs that can stop this kind of reaction, according to Angelo. Also anti-allergy nasal spray and corticosteroids are effective for relieving the allergic reactions.