BATON ROUGE — As the leaves fall in autumn, cases of seasonal allergies rise.

Hay fever, also known as allergic rhinitis, will be in full swing this season and ragweed is often the biggest culprit.

"If an allergic person with ragweed sensitivity goes outside, they inhale ragweed pollen grains — little pollen plant proteins — that land in the lining of the nose. And in that allergic person, there is an inflammatory response — …" said Dr. James Li, an allergy and immunologist specialist.

This makes life miserable for people with seasonal allergies.

"Nasal congestion, sneezing, runny nose, maybe itching of the nose or the mouth, as well as similar eye symptoms — eyes water, turn red or get itchy,” said Li.

The first step in getting relief is reducing exposure. This can be achieved by limiting time outdoors when pollen counts are high.

Second: Try over-the-counter medications, like antihistamines, decongestants and allergy nasal
sprays, which can help control the symptoms.

If those don't help, make an appointment with a health care professional, like an allergist.

"We'll go through the allergy tests, and one of the treatments we will at least talk about would be
allergy shots,” said Li, "And the payoff is that their allergy symptoms can be significantly improved."