NW LA Times

• About 50 million Americans suffer from allergies each year.
• Allergic reactions can vary from mild irritation to severe discomfort, with symptoms including sneezing, a runny nose, and itchy, watery, or swollen eyes.
• Allergies and sinusitis share many of the same symptoms, often exacerbating each other and making both conditions worse.

As the season changes to summer, it is important to remember how allergies can change with the season and how they can impact someone’s health. According to Dr. Matt Hershcovitch of SoCal Breathe Free, allergies can affect a patient in many ways, including by triggering sinus issues. 

“Allergies are a large contributing factor to setting off sinus problems,” Dr. Hershcovitch told the NW LA Times. “Allergies are, very generally, your body's sensitivity to something. When you breathe in an irritant or an allergen, it causes a reaction in your nose and it causes all these inflammatory mediators and white blood cells to attack the allergen, which causes a lot of inflammation. Now, this is what triggers the sinus problems.”

While spring allergies may subside as trees and flowers finish blooming, summer allergies triggered by weeds and grasses become the next concern for allergy sufferers. According to WebMD, one of the most common allergy triggers in the summer is ragweed. Its pollen can travel hundreds of miles on the wind, affecting areas far beyond where it originally grew.

The 50 million Americans who suffer from seasonal allergies may experience sneezing, coughing, congestion, itchy eyes, a runny nose, and fatigue, according to Yale Medicine. 

To diagnose allergies, doctors will typically review a patient’s symptoms and medical history and then recommend either a blood test or a skin test, according to WebMD. For a skin test, the doctor will place a small amount of the allergen on the patient's skin, typically on the forearm or back. If the patient is allergic to that particular allergen, a small, itchy bump will appear.

According to Yale Medicine, the other option is a blood test, where the patient's blood is drawn and analyzed for allergens in a lab. Although this method takes longer, it enables doctors to test for a wider range of allergies compared to a skin test. 

Sinusitis can be caused by viruses, bacteria, fungus and allergies. If symptoms persist for longer than three months, the condition is classified as chronic sinusitis.

According to SoCal Breathe Free's website, Dr. Matt Hershcovitch earned his undergraduate degree in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He attended medical school at the State University of New York. Hershcovitch completed his residency in head and neck surgery at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and further specialized with a fellowship in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at Stanford University.