The signs and symptoms of perennial allergic rhinitis are essentially the same as those for their seasonal counterparts. These include the itchy, runny, and stopped-up noses typical of rhinitis and episodic bouts of sneezing. The most notable difference between seasonal and perennial allergies, however, is that the symptoms of the latter are worse indoors; the misery persists with little abatement throughout the entire year. This means that people who suffer with allergy symptoms during the midsummer or late autumn and winter when pollen counts tend to be low are more likely to be suffering indoor mold and house dust allergies than pollen allergies. Finally, early morning and nighttime fits of sneezing are other useful clues to indoor mold and dust problems.
You should of course see your doctor to confirm that you are suffering with a perennial allergy rather than with some other condition that masquerades as one. As with seasonal allergic rhinitis, allergists can perform both blood and skin tests for a variety of potential mold, dust, mite, and insect allergens to determine what specifically triggers your problem.
Coping With Perennial Allergic Rhinitis
Because so much depends on the genes inherited by the individual and because doctors are not yet able to perform the necessary genetic manipulations to bring about complete cures, measures to prevent or minimize exposure become critical steps in the management of all patients with allergies. Few would disagree when it comes to allergies that an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.
Mold-proofing Your Home
Keeping indoor mold counts down means finding all damp, poorly lit, and poorly ventilated places in your home. Like many other fungi, molds thrive in dark, damp areas where there is little circulation of air. As a result, eliminating molds requires that you find the trouble spots and reverse each of the three factors that promote mold proliferation.
In your mold hunt, pay particular attention to attics, crawl spaces, basements, laundry rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens. Air that is moving and cooler holds less moisture, so an air conditioner or fan would be advisable for the basement, kitchen, and especially the bedrooms. Damp houses may be dried by turning up the heat for a time and then opening the windows to let out the moisture-laden air. The installation and use of an exhaust fan can be especially helpful for this. Dust-collecting furniture, books, carpets, bedding, wallpaper, blinds, drapes, and so forth, should be cleaned and aired thoroughly. Bathroom and kitchen tiles, toilets, tubs, shower stalls and curtains, walls, and floors should be cleaned and dried. Because it makes a great hideout for molds, examine wallpaper, especially behind furniture. The underside of porches and the insides of closets are other trouble spots that should be cleaned thoroughly. For all of these purposes, a household chlorine bleach such as Clorox makes an effective antimildew cleanser. Lysol, a well-known commercial disinfectant, also works quite well. Wherever possible, choose mold-inhibiting paints for areas that tend to get damp.
Pillows, mattresses, and box springs, particularly their undersides, should be aired thoroughly before use and covered with impermeable plastic, vinyl, or canvas. (Sturdy airtight coverings capable of withstanding multiple washings may be ordered from Allergen-Proof Encasings, Inc., PO. Box 5236, 1450 East 363rd Street, East Lake, Ohio 44094.) Foam rubber and urethane, while generally nonprob-lematic in themselves, should nonetheless be avoided because their porous construction allows for the quick accumulation of dust and mites.
Finally, before storing, make sure that all clothing, shoes, boots, and so forth, are thoroughly cleaned and dried. Even minute amounts of grease on these items makes a wonderful medium for the growth of molds.
By lessening humidity and circulating and filtering the air, air conditioners make excellent additions to antiallergy-proofing rooms. But if they are not cleaned regularly and thoroughly, particularly the filters, they may make the problem worse. To destroy another potential breeding ground for molds, you might consider periodically dropping a chlorine tablet into the place where the water drains from your window unit. For the same reasons, don't forget to routinely clean the filters in your home heating unit.
Since the average household releases as much as two quarts of water a day into the air from cooking, bathing, showering, and laundering clothes, the use of a mechanical dehumidifier to reduce dampness can be extremely helpful, especially in basements. These units should be set to maintain a uniform household humidity of 40 percent. To prevent a buildup of molds and other germs, you must clean dehumidifiers regularly.
Humidifiers, vaporizers, and steam inhalators, which are sometimes used to unclog stuffy noses, should be avoided entirely. In addition to adding moisture, they are well-known to disperse mold and bacteria into the air. Ultrasonic humidifiers, however, which employ high-frequency vibrations to convert water into mist, do not appear to increase mold and germ problems when distilled water is used and they are cleaned daily. If tap water is substituted for distilled water, which many people do to save time and money, microscopic particles of irritating minerals contained in the water may be dispersed into the air and may trigger a variety of respiratory irritations.
Finally, if possible, you should install air filters in your home's ventilation system. Two main types of filters are available: mechanical and electrostatic. As the name suggests, mechanical filters physically trap particles of dust, pollen, molds, and dander and can be extremely effective in removing possible allergens. In fact, when a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Accumulator) filter is used in a central system, virtually 99 percent of home air pollutants may be eliminated. These filters are composed of an interwoven network of tiny glass fibers that are capable of trapping minute particles.
Electrostatic filters work by a different method. First they cause dust and other unwanted particles to become negatively charged, and then they capture the particles as they pass oppositely charged wires in the system. Electrostatic filters are generally effective in central systems, but they must be cleaned frequently to maintain optimal functioning. Some of these units have been associated with the emission of small amounts of ozone, which may be irritating to the mucous membranes of the eyes and the respiratory system.
If you do not have a central air system, freestanding filters are also available for use in single rooms. For best results you should choose a HEPA-containing unit, one that is large enough to turn over air in the room many times per hour. An ordinary unit capable of adequately filtering a bedroom would be about the size of a night table. Desktop units are usually too small to do an adequate job. (And when prescribed by your doctor, the installation of air filters may be tax deductible.)
