allergies Archives - Elite Care Family Medicine

Up North, cars are coated with powdery white snow during the winter. We don’t get much snow in Mississippi but in the spring we do find a fine powder coating our vehicles, only this powder is yellow and causes many of us to sniffle and sneeze throughout the season. We’re talking about pollen, of course, and those dreaded allergy symptoms.  Is it Allergies, a Cold, or Something Else? During the spring, it’s difficult for allergy sufferers to know whether...

Springtime is here. With it comes beautiful spring foliage, fresh grass and pollen, all which can be triggers for seasonal allergies and asthma. Spring is peak season for allergy and asthma. It’s no wonder the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America considers May Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month. Asthma is often triggered by environmental allergies, which are themselves triggered by environmental elements such as grass and pollen. The cycles trigger a domino...

Spring is always torture for people with allergies. Usually sometime in March or April there’s a sudden shift away from wintry weather that encourages plants to release pollen into the air. Windy conditions then send that pollen into our noses, throats, and eyes. The pollen trigger allergy symptoms that range from congestion, sneezing and itchy eyes to headaches, diarrhea, and even depression. So what can you do if allergies are hitting you hard this year? Determine...

One minute you’re fine and the next a steady stream of blood is gushing from your nose. A nosebleed occurs when one of the many fragile surface blood vessels in the nose break. Even if the particular cause of a nosebleed is unknown, most cases are minor and treatable from home. Patients experience two kinds of nosebleeds. An anterior nosebleed occurs when the blood vessels in the front of the nose break and bleed. A posterior nosebleed occurs in the back or the deepest...

So it hits you right in the middle of the day. You start feeling sluggish. You get chills and a headache. Maybe you feel a little bit irritable. You reach for the thermometer, stick it under your tongue, and sure enough it reads 100.0° Fahrenheit. You have a low-grade fever. But what causes a fever? What is Fever? Fever is a natural response that helps fight off foreign substances such as viruses, bacteria, fungi, and toxins. Body temperature is set by the...

When cold weather hits or allergy season comes around, you can hear it. The sound of countless people hacking up a lung. While coughing is a pain, its purpose is to protect you. It’s a reflex that rids the body of things that don’t belong in your respiratory system like inhaled dirt, food, germs, and excess mucus. Many things can trigger a cough, but here are a few of the most common. Viruses Cold and the flu are the most common causes of a cough. The purpose of...

Making a New Year’s resolution is one of the most exciting things about the start of the new year. It’s a time to stop thinking about what you're going to do and start doing it. If you’re one of the 7 in 10 U.S. smokers who want to quit smoking, why not make a resolution to get started in 2018? According to the CDC, smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. Quitting now can cut your risk of disease and leave you feeling...

Allergies aren’t only a spring thing. More than 40 million Americans cope with year-round allergies. The causes of these allergies can be as varied as the people and places they affect. But some common triggers  show up more often around the holidays. Food. The holidays mean plenty of parties and holiday dinners. When people are less likely to eat food at home, they heighten the chances of accidentally eating foods they're allergic to. Some holiday dishes might even...

According to the American Cancer Society, in 2017, an estimated 1,688,780 new cancer cases will be diagnosed and 600,920 deaths due to cancer in the US. Not very happy statistics, we know. World Lung Cancer Day is recognized on August 1, so for today we’re focusing specifically on this type of cancer. Anyone can get lung cancer. Lung cancer happens when cells in the lung mutate or change and this mutation can be caused by various factors. Most often, this change in...

Allergies are a common plight for many Americans. In fact, allergies affect more than 50 million Americans and rank as the sixth leading causes of chronic illness in the United States, costing $18 billion annually. But why do so many of us suffer from allergies, and if it is such a common ailment, when should we see a healthcare provider about it? Here’s what you need to know. What are allergies? Allergies are an overreaction of the immune system. The allergen,...