Thousands of pollen grains, their reproductive material, fly into the air.

Look at that, and anyone with allergies knows you don't get too close or else.

But what is it about that fluffy stuff that sets off the summer sneezes anyway?

Each year, 26 million Americans experience an allergic reaction, sometimes nicknamed hay fever, the culprit pollen and to help itself get where it needs to go.

Pollen grains are extremely light and sticky.

The wind can carry them for thousands of kilometers, across state lines and over mountains.

You can even find Paul in over 600 kilometers out to sea with not a tree in sight.

In other words, the sticky stuff gets everywhere, and sometimes it sticks to places that it shouldn't like.

Your clothes, car and especially your eyes, nose and lungs.

And that is when the trouble starts.

Your sniffling and your coughing and your eyes air running and itching.

Dry nose, Boukary nose, watery eyes.

But here's the odd thing about pollen on its own.

It's harmless.

It's not a virus or a parasite that can give you a disease or damage your organs it on Lee becomes a problem when your body sees it as one.

Our body reacts to that Anna Jim, basically the protein in the pollen, and for some reason, our body has recognized it as foreign.

Your immune system has a merciless procedure for dealing with intruders.

The first line of defense are why shaped proteins called antibodies.

They're like a built in security system that guards your nose, eyes and mouth along with other tissues.

When they bump into a grain of pollen, they sound the alarm.

Now their main goal is to get that Paul in out of your system, which they do by sending a rush of white blood cells to the scene, which then produce a chemical called histamine.

Histamine has a few ways to get the job done.

First, it irritates your nose, forcing you to sneeze, which blasts some of the Paul in a way.

Second, it expands your blood vessels, opening tiny gaps between the cells that make up the wall, opening a path for a squadron of immune cells to squeeze out and attack the pollen grains.

Finally, it tells your nose to make more mucus, which traps the invader and flushes it out of your nasal passages.

Mission accomplished.

Histamine also flushes out your eyes in a similar way.

It irritates your eyes, causing them to swell and tear up.

And if Paul in reaches your lungs, histamine irritates the lining, causing you to cough it out.

The end result.

You're a snotty, miserable mess on, since different plants reproduce at different times in the spring and summer.

Theus Salt can last for months.

But hey, at least now your system is free of that.

Dangerous.

Uh, what was it again, Paul In.

Now, Poland isn't the Onley irritant that can cause this type of reaction.

People react to foods.

They react to pollens.

They react to chemicals.

They're acting antibiotics.

Their active bee stings, all of those air, the same type of immune reaction.

However, Paulen is one of the most common allergies, but scientists aren't entirely sure why.

What they do know is that some people have more sensitive immune systems than others, and that's based on a bunch of factors like genetics.

When you were first exposed to pollen and how much of it you were exposed to, all of that influences what your body is going to do is what kind of reaction is gonna have regardless of how you ended up with allergies.

One thing is clear.

They suck, you're gonna be really miserable.

And some people are very, very uncomfortable.

And e mean it leads to lost work and law school.

Seasonal allergies cost the US $18 billion a year in lost work hours and medical bills, and there's more bad news.

Climate change is making it even worse.

A recent Siris of studies showed that over the past 20 years, as global temperatures have climbed, pollen counts have risen with them.

Plus, the earlier and longer periods of warm weather have stretched prime pollen season out longer than ever.

Yes, if it's warmer, which is what climate change is doing, you're gonna have mawr of those pollinating species thriving.

The good news is there are ways to keep the summer sneezes at bay.

Like anti histamines, these meds grab onto those irritating histamine molecules, preventing them from working.

Hence the name anti histamine.

So is the skies cloud with yellow horror dust and pollen counts skyrocket.

Grab a tissue popping anti histamine and hope that winter returns soon.

E.