Valley’s air is something to sneeze at

Katrina Guzman is miserable. She could use some heat. Blistering, scorching desert heat. And fast.

“I get a lot of pressure in my head. I start dripping a lot,” says Guzman, of Mesa. “My eyes get very puffy and red and itchy and watery.”

Sound familiar?

For Guzman, 23, and thousands of other allergy and asthma sufferers in the Valley, this has been the mother of all allergy seasons, and doctors say it’s peaking. Only 100 plus-degree heat can knock down the prodigious pollination.

A relatively wet winter, followed by a spike of high temperatures in February, got trees and other pollen-producing plants off to an early start.

“I would say we are smack dab in the middle of the season,” said Dr. Miriam Anand, an allergy specialist with Allergy Associates, which has offices in Tempe, Chandler, Mesa and Phoenix.

“The majority of people who are suffering now will be seeing some relief” when temperatures consistently hit 100, she said.

So, despite dire predictions this week that global warming will turn Arizona and much of the Southwest into a new Dust Bowl, some allergy sufferers are saying: Bring it on.

But unfortunately — or fortunately, depending on your perspective — forecasts show temperatures cooling off in the short term.

For many people, Arizona’s allergy “season” is year-round. Once ash, olive, mulberry and other trees finish their reproductive cycle, Bermuda grass kicks in. Add year-round ozone and particulate pollution, and it makes urban Arizona one of the worst places in the country for allergies and asthma.

“We have a prolonged pollinating season and a combination of pollens and pollution,” said Dr. Mark Rose. “There’s a lot of research that supports the idea that pollution makes people more prone to becoming allergic.”

In addition to dust and other particulates, thanks in large part to myriad construction sites, Valley neighborhoods typically are flanked by major roadways, sending car and bus emissions wafting over homes, parks and schools.

Unchecked allergy symptoms can bloom into asthma, Anand said.

Arizona, which used to be a place people came to relieve their asthma symptoms, now has one of the highest asthma rates in the country.

To get some relief, keep doors and windows closed and regularly change air-conditioning filters.

If over-the-counter medications don’t help, ask your doctor for prescription nasal spray. If that’s still not enough, see an allergy specialist for a skin test to find out exactly what you’re allergic to, and get shots, if necessary, to condition your immune system.