Spring depression: such a weird idea, I didn’t connect them for decades.  Figured it out last year, confirmed this year.  Allergies and spring depression can go together.

I thought it was just me!  But a quick search on the internet reveals that it does effect quite a few people. 

Are you one of them?

Let’s take a closer look at one possible root cause: specific types of allergies.

Dust allergies are common, leading to skin reactions in most cases.  For example, you have get hives or eczema.

It can also trigger an asthmatic attack if you have asthma.  This does not mean that dust causes asthma, only that it triggers a reaction for asthmatic patients.

There are other, more subtle symptoms of dust exposure.  They are allergic reactions, but not with the classic reactions.  A general lack of energy and focus might be attributed to a dust allergy.

Allergies can definitely affect your memory. If you feel like you’re becoming senile at age 20, then it could be an allergy symptom.

I have a better memory now, since eliminating allergens, than I did when I was 20, even though many years have passes since then.

There are two aspects to memory: storing the memory and recalling the memory.

There are also two types of memory: short-term memory and long-term memory.

A headache is a possible allergy symptom. Headaches can also be a symptom of by many other things.

In medicine a headache is a symptom of a number of different conditions of the head.

Blisters on fingers and depression - could it be allergy-related?

I just got a question from Kate, who is experiencing blisters on her fingers, and mood problems.

What she describes could be an allergy, but not necessarily.

Read the advice I gave her. Leave comments if you have your own ideas.

I have just expanded the article on allergy symptoms.

Beyond a simple explanation of symptoms, there is also a long list of symptoms that can possibly ocure due to allergies.

Anemia is the medical term for a low level of hemoglobin in the blood.

Hemoglobin is responsible for carrying oxygen in the blood. A low level of hemoglobin reduces your ability to carry oxygen, causing weakness, fatigue and several other symptoms.

This reduces your ability to perform physical activities, because the muscles, lacking oxygen, have less power.

Symptoms of Anemia

Mild anemia can be hard to detect. The greater the deficiency in hemoglobin, the greater the symptoms.

Someone with anemia may have some or all of the following symptoms:

I've been suffering from the flu for the past few days. I am reminded that many allergy symptoms are similar to flu symptoms.

One particular symptom I've been having with this bout of flu is gummy eyes. At times, my eye-lashes have been all but glued together, especially when I am asleep.

Now I remember: before I got my allergies under control, I had this all the time, although less severe. Part of waking up was "sleep in my eyes", little hard bits of goop stuck to my eye-lashes and around my eyes.

Many of the symptoms caused by allergies are also similar to food poisoning. This is especially true of stomach upset, diarrhea, and unpleasant side-effects along those lines (see gluten allergy symptoms for some specific examples).

With the possibility of having identical symptoms, how do you know if you really have allergies, or if you are dealing with food poisoning?

First of all, the allergy symptoms are not identical to food poisoning symptoms in most cases. There are often other effects that are not the same as food poisoning.

One of the symptoms some people with allergies experience is some degree of depression.

There are two general causes for this:

1. A symptom of the allergy itself
2. A side-effect of allergy medication.

Here is one description of the effects of using allergy medication: