3 ms·

Interesting. I noticed that many people have hay fever in Japan, but I always just assumed it was genetic or something. I wonder if living there for a long time

Interesting. I noticed that many people have hay fever in Japan, but I always just assumed it was genetic or something. I wonder if living there for a long time will make you more sensitive to pollen

mc3301 5mo ago
Lots of people I know who moved here as adults have developed pollen allergies over the years. Some after a 2 or 3 years, some after 10.
komali2 5mo ago
I'd been wondering why my allergies go nuts every time I visit Japan, but never really suffered in other Asian countries. Cool to know now. Upside is I discovered the trick of just taking fexofenadine every single day which had the side effect of solving my chronic sinus infections.
- petesergeant 5mo ago
  My quality of life is notably better from daily fexofenadine vs what I think was low-level allergies that I developed in my 20s to pets, dust, etc
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
timr 5mo ago
As someone who has suffered from hay fever for my entire life, and also lived in many different locations, almost every move came with a 2-3 year reprieve from my symptoms while my body "discovered" the fun new local allergens.
- IAmBroom 5mo ago
  Same.
plutokras 5mo ago
[flagged]
tidenly 5mo ago
I got hayfever on my 3rd year of living here, and it seems like quite a common pattern among immigrants I've noticed. I have hayfever back in the UK too, but I guess I didn't have a Cedar allergy - so it took time to develop.
Markoff 5mo ago
I would assume it has more to do with less exposition to hay/pollen in urban areas, for instance in years in Beijing I've had hardly allergies since it is not exactly green, though I went to parks, but here in Prague right now with everything blooming it's nuts. Actually now that I think about it never head really problems with allergies even in Southeast Asia, though I was in very green areas, maybe humidity helps as well?
- tpm 5mo ago
  I think the humidity has to play a role in that. Very dry air is not good for the nose even without allergies. This year the spring is very dry and also quite cold in Central Europe which makes things worse.
  - Tor3 5mo ago
    In Japan, however, it's almost always very humid. Today, for example, it's over 70% relative (when the sky was still clear and mostly blue, now it's raining so it's much worse). And, as said in that article, there's a lot of allergy in Japan. My wife (native) has a little bit of it, and I myself also reacted for a while, but given time it seems to have left me (as I mentioned elsewhere I grew up on a farm with exposure to everything and I never had an allergy before). There's one guy I know who lives more or less in the middle of a forest with both Sugi and Hinoki, and he's suffering a lot. But he still likes it much better there than in the huge city where he grew up. I noticed that among the locals in that place (just a bunch of houses, not even a village) I didn't see anyone else with that kind of allergy.
    - tpm 5mo ago
      > In Japan, however, it's almost always very humid. Yeah I realised that's a little bit of an issue in my theory. Of course if it's very humid I would also expect that most buildings have aircon that's keeping the humidity down and can contribute to the allergies.
      - Tor3 5mo ago
mathieuh 5mo ago
It’s known that repeated exposure to allergens can cause allergic symptoms in people previously without them. For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_fancier%27s_lung https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_fancier%27s_lung https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmer%27s_lung https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmer%27s_lung I actually seemed to grow out of hay fever when I was in my early 20s. Perhaps coincidentally this is also around the time I developed an allergy to cannabis from overuse. Wonder if they’re related somehow.
- IAmBroom 5mo ago
  Poison ivy/oak sensitivity varies with lifetime exposure. On rare occasions, it is inverse: careful exposure can sometimes lead to resistance. More commonly: you get more sensitive over your lifetime, and some "once immune" people end up catastrophically changing due to incautious exposure. It's complicated.
- bobthepanda 5mo ago
  it's a bit of a balance. based on this advice, there was a long time recommendation to avoid giving young children peanuts. however, this advice was rescinded after it turned out to increase peanut allergies.
jdshaffer 5mo ago
Yes. I developed hay fever after living here in Japan for a couple years. Was fine the first few years, though it was amusing to watch "yellow clouds of pollen" being blown from the trees with random gusts of wind. Now it's not so amusing. My car windows are dusted with a new layer of "light yellow" every couple days now (in season).
- zeafoamrun 5mo ago
  It's super easy to be allergic to cedar pollen because it is such a fine pollen. I developed a cedar pollen allergy within a couple years of moving from somewhere with no cedar to a heavily forested area with cedar. No other allergies to anything, I don't think I'm particularly prone. I tried doing the allergy shots for it for a while but it didn't seem to do much. What works is staying inside with the house sealed up and air filters running, or just getting the hell out of town for a month+.
- expedition32 5mo ago
  Airconditioning 24/7 everywhere makes people weak is my theory.
  - ielillo 5mo ago
    AC are the bane for allergic people. It dries the air and flares the nostrils
pezezin 5mo ago
I have been living in Japan for almost 8 years now, and I didn't have any allergy ever until a month ago when all of sudden it hit me like a hammer. Good god was it painful...
themaninthedark 5mo ago
Sample size of 1, for a couple years in Japan had no issue but then hit like a truck. I have allergies to ragweed and didn't have spring allergies before that. Now back in the US and have spring allergies as well.

Interesting. I noticed that many people have hay fever in Japan, but I always just assumed it was genetic or something. I wonder if living there for a long time will make you more sensitive to pollen

mc3301 5mo ago

Lots of people I know who moved here as adults have developed pollen allergies over the years. Some after a 2 or 3 years, some after 10.

komali2 5mo ago

I'd been wondering why my allergies go nuts every time I visit Japan, but never really suffered in other Asian countries. Cool to know now. Upside is I discovered the trick of just taking fexofenadine every single day which had the side effect of solving my chronic sinus infections.

petesergeant 5mo ago
My quality of life is notably better from daily fexofenadine vs what I think was low-level allergies that I developed in my 20s to pets, dust, etc

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

timr 5mo ago

As someone who has suffered from hay fever for my entire life, and also lived in many different locations, almost every move came with a 2-3 year reprieve from my symptoms while my body "discovered" the fun new local allergens.

IAmBroom 5mo ago
Same.

plutokras 5mo ago

[flagged]

tidenly 5mo ago

I got hayfever on my 3rd year of living here, and it seems like quite a common pattern among immigrants I've noticed. I have hayfever back in the UK too, but I guess I didn't have a Cedar allergy - so it took time to develop.

Markoff 5mo ago

I would assume it has more to do with less exposition to hay/pollen in urban areas, for instance in years in Beijing I've had hardly allergies since it is not exactly green, though I went to parks, but here in Prague right now with everything blooming it's nuts. Actually now that I think about it never head really problems with allergies even in Southeast Asia, though I was in very green areas, maybe humidity helps as well?

tpm 5mo ago
I think the humidity has to play a role in that. Very dry air is not good for the nose even without allergies. This year the spring is very dry and also quite cold in Central Europe which makes things worse.
- Tor3 5mo ago
  In Japan, however, it's almost always very humid. Today, for example, it's over 70% relative (when the sky was still clear and mostly blue, now it's raining so it's much worse). And, as said in that article, there's a lot of allergy in Japan. My wife (native) has a little bit of it, and I myself also reacted for a while, but given time it seems to have left me (as I mentioned elsewhere I grew up on a farm with exposure to everything and I never had an allergy before). There's one guy I know who lives more or less in the middle of a forest with both Sugi and Hinoki, and he's suffering a lot. But he still likes it much better there than in the huge city where he grew up. I noticed that among the locals in that place (just a bunch of houses, not even a village) I didn't see anyone else with that kind of allergy.
  - tpm 5mo ago
    > In Japan, however, it's almost always very humid. Yeah I realised that's a little bit of an issue in my theory. Of course if it's very humid I would also expect that most buildings have aircon that's keeping the humidity down and can contribute to the allergies.
    - Tor3 5mo ago

mathieuh 5mo ago

It’s known that repeated exposure to allergens can cause allergic symptoms in people previously without them. For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_fancier%27s_lung https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_fancier%27s_lung https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmer%27s_lung https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmer%27s_lung I actually seemed to grow out of hay fever when I was in my early 20s. Perhaps coincidentally this is also around the time I developed an allergy to cannabis from overuse. Wonder if they’re related somehow.

IAmBroom 5mo ago
Poison ivy/oak sensitivity varies with lifetime exposure. On rare occasions, it is inverse: careful exposure can sometimes lead to resistance. More commonly: you get more sensitive over your lifetime, and some "once immune" people end up catastrophically changing due to incautious exposure. It's complicated.
bobthepanda 5mo ago
it's a bit of a balance. based on this advice, there was a long time recommendation to avoid giving young children peanuts. however, this advice was rescinded after it turned out to increase peanut allergies.

jdshaffer 5mo ago

Yes. I developed hay fever after living here in Japan for a couple years. Was fine the first few years, though it was amusing to watch "yellow clouds of pollen" being blown from the trees with random gusts of wind. Now it's not so amusing. My car windows are dusted with a new layer of "light yellow" every couple days now (in season).

zeafoamrun 5mo ago
It's super easy to be allergic to cedar pollen because it is such a fine pollen. I developed a cedar pollen allergy within a couple years of moving from somewhere with no cedar to a heavily forested area with cedar. No other allergies to anything, I don't think I'm particularly prone. I tried doing the allergy shots for it for a while but it didn't seem to do much. What works is staying inside with the house sealed up and air filters running, or just getting the hell out of town for a month+.
expedition32 5mo ago
Airconditioning 24/7 everywhere makes people weak is my theory.
- ielillo 5mo ago
  AC are the bane for allergic people. It dries the air and flares the nostrils

pezezin 5mo ago

I have been living in Japan for almost 8 years now, and I didn't have any allergy ever until a month ago when all of sudden it hit me like a hammer. Good god was it painful...

themaninthedark 5mo ago

Sample size of 1, for a couple years in Japan had no issue but then hit like a truck. I have allergies to ragweed and didn't have spring allergies before that. Now back in the US and have spring allergies as well.