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Sick of the rain? You could be — literally

05:54 PM CDT on Wednesday, July 18, 2007

By Janice Williamson / 11 News

Sick of all the rain? You could be — literally.

Turns out some symptoms that a lot of folks think are allergies are actually something else.

Is the weather making you sick?

When it rains in Houston it often pours.

Front after front pushes through, and soon there’s a flood of patients in the doctor’s office.

Maria Mills started feeling bad soon after she moved here from Minneapolis.

“Whenever the fronts would come through I felt more pressure in my sinuses,” Mills said. “I thought it was allergies.”

Dr. Joseph Perez tells us a lot of people have allergy like symptoms including congestion, sinus pressure and post nasal drip.

But like Maria Mills they don’t have allergies.

“We did skin testing on her, and it was completely negative,” Dr. Perez said. “So it brings up an interesting phenomena that can occur with regard to barometric pressure.”

A change in air pressure can trigger something called non-allergic rhinitis.

Flying can also cause sinus problems that have nothing to do with allergies.

The best way to treat rhinitis is with saline washes or prescription nasal sprays.

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Decongestants can also help.

The symptoms don’t always go away as quickly as the bad weather does. Some patients don’t feel better for days.

With allergies patients can try to stay away from what they are allergic to.

With Rhinitis: “Obviously it would be almost impossible to reduce or eliminate the cause if it’s pressure-induced or change of weather problem,” Dr. Perez said. “We live in Houston; you can’t control the weather.”

It does change though — just wait a while.

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