I got my allergies 13 years ago, as an adult, it's still very fresh in my memory. Walked downtown of a Swedish city on a hot and humid summer day, I remember t

I got my allergies 13 years ago, as an adult, it's still very fresh in my memory. Walked downtown of a Swedish city on a hot and humid summer day, I remember the air when I passed through the city park was so thick with pollen that it smelled musky. A couple hours later I was walking home and my nose started running, yet another couple of hours later my entire face was gushing liquids so bad I could barely see where I was going when I headed to the pharmacy for antihistamine. Before this I had never had an allergic reaction, to anything. According to doctors my allergies are supposed to be timothy grass pollen, birch pollen, dog and cat fur. (I took care of a dog for 10 months before this with no symptoms.) Now 13 years later I have made some observations that might help others with their allergies, as a layperson. The first few years were the worst, but it gets better! I used to have to take pills for at least a month every summer, making me drowzy and essentially ruining summers for me. 13 years on and this summer I've taken 0 pills, only used my nosespray 5 times maybe. I've had a Jack Russell dog for 6 years now, constantly by my side, in my home and even in my bed. It seems as if I've gotten used to my dog's dandruff because if I visit someone with a dog I break out into sneezing and runny nose within a few hours in their home. I make sure to feed her food that will promote a healthy and moisturized skin, because that's where the dandruff comes from, the fur is just the medium. That's also an important detail that my allergies are worst indoors, outdoors I barely feel them except for the occasional multi-sneeze, twice a day maybe. Another interesting detail is that my allergies are mostly present in Sweden! I recently moved to Croatia and the 5 times I've used my nosespray this year have all been while visiting Sweden. My layperson theory is that there is too much grass in Sweden. They focus a lot on planting and maintaining grass in cities. It's nice but I don't think it's naturally balanced. In Swedish nature grass meadows are always uncut, and always interspersed among forrest areas. In cities large grass meadows are regularly cut and interspersed by parking lots and buildings. There is nowhere for the pollen to go, every summer there are swathes of pollen lining the streets after any rainfall. Down here in Croatia there is a lot less of that. It's not non-existent, I remember seeing the largest examples of timothy grass ever here. Once we took a wrong turn and ended up driving through a field, lots of pollen stuck on the radiator of the car, when we got out of the field I broke out into the worst allergic reaction I ever had down here. So the timothy grass is present, but I believe it's managed better by nature, as long as I don't stick my face in a field. ;) So this article doesn't cover city planning, it's more about chemicals, but I believe city planning plays a huge role.