Allergies happen when your immunity system reacts to foreign invaders such as pollen, dust mites, mold, pet dander, or specific foods. It’s a safety mechanism designed to keep you safe – the immune system thinks the body is being attacked and starts producing antibodies to protect you from those foreign substances that are supposedly making you sick or causing an infection.
When you’re allergic, the antibodies produced by your immune system identify specific allergens as something harmful when, in fact, they are not. As a result, every time you come into contact with those allergens, your body answers back with inflammation in the lungs and nasal passages.
If you have experienced or are experiencing (severe) allergy symptoms in the place you are living at the moment, you may have considered moving to a new area with the hope of having your allergies reduced or even eliminated.
Under specific circumstances, moving because of allergies makes sense since certain areas in the country may alleviate your allergies.
For example, if you happen to be allergic to pollen, you might want to try moving to areas that are located near large bodies of water. The logic is solid: oceans do not produce pollen so there should be less pollen in the air.
So, will moving help allergies?
Read on to find the answer.
How badly are allergies affecting your life?
The truth is that allergic reactions can range from minor inconveniences to life-threatening in some more serious cases. For many allergy sufferers though, their allergy symptoms happen to be somewhere in the middle.
The most typical symptoms of allergies include:
sneezing,
coughing,
nasal congestion (stuffed-up nose),
runny nose,
itchy (irritated) eyes,
watery eyes,
scratchy throat,
headaches,
difficulty sleeping,
chronic sinus infections,
breathing problems, including asthma attacks in some more serious cases,
skin rashes, and so on.
In addition to the great nuisance, allergies may become a serious issue for you and affect negatively your daily life. Ask yourselves these questions:
How are your allergies affecting your life – both personal and professional?
Are allergies affecting negatively the overall quality of your life?
How much money do you spend in a month on allergy medicines?
Really?
If you feel truly miserable in your area due to a pollen allergy, you may be thinking about moving to another part of the country that will alleviate the symptoms of allergic rhinitis.
However, there are many things to consider before moving out because of allergies. Sometimes, you may be able to find a good solution to your condition without resorting to moving away to a place that, supposedly, will be better for your health.
After all, you wouldn’t want to go through a tough house move only to find out that your allergies are still present in the new area, or maybe even worse.
Understand the pros and cons of moving because of allergies
Before you make a decision about what to do, it’s important that you understand the pros and cons of moving because of allergies:
Advantages of moving because of allergies
How far would you go to lead an allergy-free life?
There are several good reasons to move because of allergies as long as you know for a fact that the new area will be better for your health:
You may get long-term relief from your allergic reactions;
You will lower your medical expenses when you stop using anti-allergic medications;
Your overall quality of life will improve, and you should feel much healthier and happier as a result;
You will be able to spend more time outside even during the height of the pollen season.
The bottom line is that if you feel relief in the new location with fewer allergens, that alone is a great reason to move to live there. Add the fact that you will save money by not having to buy all those medications that treat your allergy symptoms.
Moving away because of allergies can also prove to be a bad move for a number of reasons:
You may become allergic to a new set of allergens in the new environment;
Some allergens are present just about everywhere;
Moving house is an expensive affair, so you’ll need to have enough money saved to cover the inevitable moving expenses;
The job opportunities in the new place may be much more limited for you;
You’ll move away from family and friends.
As you can see, the cons of moving because of allergies seem to prevail, especially if you are forced to risk your professional career due to the move. To make things even more complicated, you could actually get more allergies because of the move.
The tricky part is that, in some cases, you won’t know if you’re actually getting any relief until some months have passed, and even then you may not be entirely sure whether your allergic symptoms have disappeared for good.
As an allergy sufferer, you should consider moving away to a new state in the country only after exhausting every other option available to you at the moment. Don’t make any rash decisions that you may come to regret later, especially if your allergy symptoms persist.
Read on to learn what you have to do before you consider moving away.
Get your allergy tested
Make sure you get an allergy test before you decide what to do next.
The most important thing is to figure out which specific allergens make you feel so miserable.
So, make sure you consult with an allergist – a doctor who has special training and expertise to diagnose your specific type of allergy. In most cases, they should be able to understand what is triggering your allergic symptoms and give you advice on how to manage the condition in the best possible way.
You must have an allergy test – it will show whether you’re allergic to seasonal pollen or to other allergens such as house dust, mold, or maybe even pet dander. For example, an allergy test for aeroallergens will tell you the specific types of pollen (tree pollen, grass pollen, weed pollen) your immune system has a strong reaction against.
The most common allergens are:
Seasonal pollen
According to estimates from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, 75% of the Americans who are allergic to pollen-producing plants happen to be allergic to ragweed.
Ragweed is one of the strongest allergens of them all. The weeds grow in most parts of the country but can be most commonly found in the Midwest and the eastern U.S. states. It can be hard to believe that a single ragweed plant can produce up to 1 billion pollen grains.
Ragweed is known to thrive in warm and humid climates. Although the plant grows typically in rural areas, its pollen is so light that strong winds can carry the ragweed pollen for hundreds and hundreds of miles across the ground and up to 2 miles into the atmosphere.
That basically means that even if you move to an area with fewer ragweed plants growing there, you’ll find it almost impossible to escape the airborne allergen during the ragweed season.
Ragweed season can start early in some areas of the country (mid to late July), but most ragweed blooms in August, with its peak around early September.
Don’t rush to move away because of a pollen allergy only to find that you’re actually allergic to something else.
Dust mites
The thing is that you may be thinking that you’re allergic to pollen until your allergy test shows that you’re actually allergic to dust mites. The symptoms of dust mite allergy mimic the ones of hay fever – sneezing, runny nose, or even difficulty breathing.
Dust mites are microscopic bugs that live in the house dust. Those microorganisms are invisible to the naked eye, eat skin cells that are shed by people, and thrive in warm and humid environments.
So, if it turns out that you’re allergic to dust mites, then moving to a new home is unlikely to solve the problem for you. Your best bet is to take steps to reduce the number of dust mites in your home, which in turn will help you keep your dust mite allergy under control.
Mold
Look for signs of mold in your home.
It may turn out that you’re coughing, sneezing, rubbing your itchy eyes, or constantly blowing your runny nose due to a mold allergy.
Mold allergy symptoms range from mild to severe, and you may be feeling miserable only during specific times of the year or have year-round symptoms.
When you’re allergic to mold spores and you inhale those tiny, airborne particles, your immune system tends to overreact – it recognizes them as invaders and starts to produce allergy-causing antibodies to fight them.
Molds are very common both inside and outside. However, it’s only specific types of mold that cause allergies. So, moving house because of mold allergy should be your last resort. Instead, you should inspect carefully the inside of your home, locate the mold that causes your allergic reaction, and eliminate it.
Look for problematic mold in damp and dark areas such as your bathroom and kitchen, including the areas around the sink and the refrigerator.
Pet dander
Instead of trying to guess the cause of your allergy, it’s critical that you know exactly what triggers your allergic symptoms before deciding to move away. Why? The perfect example is pet allergy – the allergic reaction to some proteins found in the skin cells, saliva, or urine of pet animals.
Pet allergy is also known as pet dander because the allergy is often triggered by exposure to the dead skin flakes (dander) that a pet sheds. Pet allergies are most commonly linked to cats and dogs but any animal with fur may be the source of pet dander allergy.
One thing is sure – when you move house, you will take your dear pet – dog, cat, or bird – with you. Unfortunately, moving away to a new home won’t help if you’re allergic to your pet. Medications may be necessary to relieve the pet allergy symptoms, but your best course of action is to reduce the exposure to your pet animal as much as possible.
Before you reach the critical decision to move away because of allergies, you’re strongly recommended to speak with an allergist about a special treatment that can change the underlying allergy with long-term results.
The treatment is called allergy immunotherapy and it’s been well-established for over 100 years now.
The main idea of immunotherapy is to get allergy shots for a specific period of time in order to reduce or even end your allergies. Those shots introduce an allergen or a group of allergens into your body over a long period of time so that your immune system can learn to cope with those allergens.
When done properly and when overseen by a specialist, allergy immunotherapy can greatly reduce allergy symptoms, which will feed two birds with one scone – you will feel healthier and happier as a result and you will also save money by reducing or eliminating the need for allergy medicines.
The drawback of immunotherapy is that the treatment course can take between 3 and 5 years to complete, meaning that you’ll have to schedule visits to the doctor’s office at least twice a month, if not more.
In your specific case, sublingual immunotherapy may be enough – you place medicine – either a liquid or a tablet – underneath the tongue (as the therapy name suggests) once a day. Again, speak with a licensed immunologist about the most effective treatment for your allergies.
If you know for a fact that you have a pollen allergy, then one thing you can do instead of going through the stress and hassle of moving house is to take a yearly vacation during the height of allergy season.
In fact, moving temporarily to a place where you won’t feel that miserable can only work out if the destination area has a low pollen count (if you’re allergic to pollen).
Check the pollen counts in the new area by visiting the webpage of the National Allergy Bureau (NAB). NAB displays the most accurate and reliable pollen levels from many counting stations throughout the country.
Of course, organizing such a temporary move may prove to be harder than you think because of two major reasons:
First of all, pollination is weather-dependent so you can’t know for sure when the pollens will start filling up the air. Practically speaking, this means that you’ll have to have a very flexible work schedule to move out at the first hints of allergy season.
Also, the practice of running away from the flying pollen will be much more difficult if you have a family – a working spouse and school-age children.
And secondly, pollen may differ from one location to another but the allergens that trigger an allergic reaction may stay with you wherever you go. As mentioned above, there’s no guarantee that allergy symptoms will go away – on the contrary, you may become allergic to a new set of allergens in the new environment.
And that’s exactly why you should consider visiting the new area for a few weeks prior to deciding that you want to move there permanently.
A single ragweed plant can produce up to 1 billion pollen grains.
You may have become so desperate that you’d rather move away than go through another allergy season.
And yet, the success of the whole relocation operation will depend on what substances you’re allergic to and where you choose to move to.
The most important thing to understand is that while some regions in the country will be better for your type of allergy, perfectly hypoallergenic places do not exist.
Briefly, here are the best places to move to because of allergies:
Pollen
As a rule of thumb, the best places to move to if you suffer from seasonal allergic rhinitis (hay fever) are the ones located near large bodies of water. Large lakes and oceans do not produce pollen so there should be less pollen in the air as a result.
Unfortunately, while coastal areas do have lower pollen counts than inland areas, they are not pollen-free. Remember that ragweed pollen – the most frequent allergen of hay fever – can travel hundreds of miles over the ground and even across the ocean.
Also, many people who are allergic to pollen think that moving to the Southwestern U.S. will help alleviate their allergy symptoms because fewer pollen-releasing plants grow in the desert environment. Unfortunately, moving to Arizona may not solve your problems since there are several native species of ragweed in Phoenix alone.
The tricky part is that not all hay fever sufferers are allergic to the same pollen, meaning that there will always be other native or non-native species of plants and weeds that may cause allergies in the destination place.
Dust mites
As mentioned above, dust mites are too small to be seen with the naked eye, therefore they remain invisible to us. Those microscopic organisms thrive in humid environments so if you’ve made up your mind to move away because of your allergy to dust mites, then you’d better choose areas of the country with low humidity.
Dust mites find it hard to survive in arid climates and are much less common in high-altitude locations like Denver, for example.
If you happen to be allergic to mold, then the best course of action for you is to get rid of the mold inside your current home. If you can’t seem to manage it on your own, then consider hiring professionals to remove the house mold once and for all.
Still, if you’ve already made up your mind to move away because of your mold allergy, then bear in mind that mold thrives in damp and dark places, so you’d be better off moving to the more arid western states than moving to the humid southern states where it rains frequently.
Insect stings
If you happen to be allergic to insect stings, then you should feel safer in big cities where there are fewer stinging insects such as bees, wasps, and so on. Therefore, moving from a rural area to a large city is the logical step to protect yourself from your stinging insect allergy.
Even though it can be really hard to protect against insects, you should visit a reputable allergist who will prescribe medications to treat the reaction after you get stung or even recommend venom immunotherapy in some more serious cases that will greatly reduce the chance of a life-threatening reaction after an insect sting.
Don’t forget to pack your allergy-relief medications in your essentials box.
So, should you move because of allergies? The truth is that the right answer is different for each person.
Yes, moving may be a good decision in your situation and you may be able to find the relief you seek in a new location. But moving to a new place could also make things worse in the long run if you acquire new allergies over time.
That is why, you’re strongly advised to find a reputable allergist in your current town or city, request an allergy test, and then discuss the results with the specialist.
Should you decide to move away due to your allergies, then don’t forget to get in touch with reputable movers too.
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