Mountain Cedar Fever or Ashe's Juniper Pollen Allergy.

December in San Antonio, TX is not as cold as in Illinois, but surely has it's down sides, I am talking about “Mountain Cedar Fever” (evergreen called Ashe’s Juniper), is not a cedar, is not a fever, this Juniper tree pollinates all winter and sends clouds of seeds (golden grains) across the plains with the breeze or winter winds) by itself is bad for people with allergies, but if you did not had an allergy to it you may develop it. Cedar Fever refers to a collection of conditions physically and environmentally that may end up sending you to the ER with pneumonia or other flu or cold complications. Starting the month of December all the pollen from the mountain Cedar trees in the hill country is blown away with the north winds and brought right into our city and homes. I love nature and I know we need to get used to it, but when you move from one place to another, it takes time for your body to adapt. The problem with this pollen is that you may develop an allergy and there are other factors that contribute to make of these winters sometimes fatal. In the winter conditions * Low temperatures, cold air. *Cold and Flu Virus, bacterial Infections like Strep, Pollen and smog in the air. (Social gatherings) *Plus extremely low moisture in the air. * Ashe’s Juniper Pollen Allergies. You can develop symptoms like sinus congestion or sinus infection, headaches. The dry air in the winter makes your wind pipes and entire upper respiratory tract be dry and when is dry, all of the allergens in the air get stuck inside our throat and sinuses, our body’s immune system way to wash it away is with the natural body fluids but the dryness doesn’t allow it, so your body is not able to do the cleaning. Solution: H2O Get a humidifier the best that you can get either small ones in every room or whole house humidifier. The best humidifiers are the cool mist humidifier; try to find one with UV light or anti bacterial properties, A filter less is easier to take care of. There is the Honeywell 300T or best buy and Target have a different series but also good ones. Also for kids bedrooms I love the little ones like frog, elephant... Target has those too and I like them because they don't require filter and you just need to clean it once a week. The Holmes 1 gallon cool mist is good too. Drink lots and lots of fluids, hot tea, ice tea, water, limeade, lemonade, orange juice, in the winter we don’t get as thirsty as in summer but we need lots of liquids to let our body work properly. Again our body’s immune system works but sometimes we just need to give it the right aid and is all our there in nature. And now my quest is to find out how to make our body less reactive to the pollen of these trees. I have read that eating the seeds of the male tree may work but I will let you know when I find out more and if you have ideas please leave a comment! If you have cold and fevers treat it just like you usually do, call your Dr. Robitusin, allergy medicine as Claritin, Zarabees cough syrup, zicam, equinnacea, vitamin C, and if you get a fever higher than 103 call your Dr. right away, go to the ER, If your children experience trouble breathing, especially children that have pre existent conditions like allergies or asthma.