Allergies? Just seal yourself inside your house – problem solved!

Allergies? Just seal yourself inside your house – problem solved!

Would you like a little tip from a highly respected doctor on how to control seasonal allergies?

Free advice? Sure. We’ll bite.

On a recent broadcast of Good Morning America, GMA medical editor Tim Johnson, M.D., told host Charlie Gibson that the best way to control allergies is to control your environment.

Dr. Tim (as they refer to him on the show): “The whole idea, of course, is to keep away from pollen. In your home or car or office, seal it up, close the doors and windows, use the air conditioning.”

Gibson (With an appropriately incredulous tone) “You mean don’t go outside?”

Dr. Tim: That’s one thing. And if you do go out, try not to go out in the morning when pollen is worse.”

But what about pollen that sneaks past your sealed barricades? Dr. Tim: “Try to keep people or animals that come into your house clean. So somebody or your pet walks in, hose them down, right on the spot – no, don’t hose them down. (Dr. Tim and Charlie share a laugh.) Wash their clothes, take a bath, clean your hair, because the idea is to keep the pollen out of the house, that’s the number one rule, and then try to avoid it when you go out by rushing to your car or the office.”

Gibson: “Hermetically seal yourself inside the house?”

Dr. Tim: “That’s the phrase to use, yeah.”

And this isn’t just a springtime recommendation. Dr. Tim notes that you should live in a pristine bubble most of the year to avoid tree pollen in the spring, grass pollen in the summer, and ragweed pollen in the fall.

In other words, for about nine months every year, behave as if you have an advanced case of agoraphobia.

If your doctor’s allergy Plan A was to advise you to become completely neurotic about avoiding every spec of pollen, wouldn’t you seriously consider getting another doctor?

Of course, Dr. Tim doesn’t let us down in the drug department. That’s plan B. He says, “There are some EXCELLENT over-the-counter medicines.”

Orwhat if you wanted to live a normal life from, say, St. Patrick’s Day to Christmas, and you’d like to do it without being drugged the whole time? You can find out how you might do just that in the e-Alert “Down For the Count” (5/12/08).

Sources:
“Allergy Myths” Dr. Tim Johnson, Good Morning America, 5/1/08, http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4754830