{"id":544589,"date":"2026-04-22T12:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/544589\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T12:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T12:21:07","slug":"hay-fever-misery-does-last-longer-heres-how-to-cope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/544589\/","title":{"rendered":"Hay fever misery does last longer – here’s how to cope"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new report, published in the journal Lancet Public Health, external<\/a>, says climate change is extending the flowering season of some plants.<\/p>\n

It looked at three trees common in Europe – birch, alder and olive – and found pollination started one to two weeks earlier between 2015 and 2024, compared with 1991 to 2000.<\/p>\n

“We are seeing a prolonged season \u2013 an earlier onset of pollination in both the north and south [of Europe]”, says Professor Joacim Rocklov, from the University of Heidelberg, one of the authors of the paper.<\/p>\n

He told the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 that more research is needed to see if climate change could also be increasing the amount of pollen circulating and making hay fever symptoms more severe.<\/p>\n

Early summer is often peak pollen season, when the number of grains of pollen in the air multiplies.<\/p>\n

The warm weather seen in the UK over the last two years means conditions have been ideal for birch tree pollen – a major hay fever trigger. <\/p>\n

Warm, dry days help spread pollen through the air, creating what’s been dubbed a “pollen bomb”.<\/p>\n

Any extension of the pollen season could have an impact on millions of people across the UK. <\/p>\n

“While for some their symptoms can be mild, for many their hay fever symptoms impacts their quality of life,” says Anne Biggs, deputy head of clinical services at Allergy UK.<\/p>\n

“It can mean missed days at work, poor sleep and, for some teenagers and young people, active hay fever symptoms can mean they drop an academic grade in their exams.”<\/p>\n

Pollen can also trigger asthma attacks and allergic reactions in people living with other respiratory conditions.<\/p>\n

“If people are allergic to pollen, it can inflame their airways and cause terrifying breathing conditions, which can lead to life-threatening asthma attacks and COPD flare-ups,” says Dr Samantha Walker, director of research and innovation at Asthma and Lung UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new report, published in the journal Lancet Public Health, external, says climate change is extending the flowering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-544589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}