Spring Guide 2007: Spring Fling

The wind isn't the only thing about spring that blows.

April can indeed be the cruelest month, not only because it breeds lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain, yada yada yada. All that ain't so bad, really, compared with seasonal rhinitis (aka allergies), windstorms and an

inflamed liver. A young man's fancy may turn to love this time of year, but first consider a few fun facts:

• Forestry and allergy experts agree: Juniper and other tree pollen will probably be in the extreme range from mid-March through perhaps mid-May this year, due to record-breaking monsoons last summer and a significant amount of winter precipitation.

• Spring is the windiest time of year in Santa Fe, and studies show that all that bluster can have a disorienting and irritating affect on mood.

• For thousands of years, Oriental medicine has held that spring is "liver season," with the liver being the seat of anger, irritability and cranky aggression.

Preparing for and treating the symptoms of allergies requires a certain amount of research and effort. Chronic seasonal allergy sufferers sometimes benefit from allergy shots,

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which introduce a small amount of an allergen into the bloodstream in the hopes that the immune system will manufacture antibodies ahead of time and not totally freak out when the allergen is present in the environment. There are also alternative intravenous therapies, as provided, for example, by the Santa Fe Center for Allergy and Environmental Medicine, which specializes in LDA (short for "low dose allergens," or ultra low dose enzyme activated immunotherapy). A non-FDA-approved immunotherapy, LDA involves the injection of a minute dose of the enzyme beta-glucuronidase and very small amounts of specific allergens. The idea behind allergy shots in general is to calm down T cells and reduce the immune system's sensitivity to pollen, for example.

Many allergy sufferers treat symptoms with a variety of over-the-counter or prescription decongestants and antihistamines. Jumpy, snoozy, woozy and dizzy: These are not the evil dwarves of spring, but side-effect-induced states of mind and body that can lend allergy season an almost Hunter S Thompson-esque charm. Holistic herbal remedies such as ephedra and immune-boosting concoctions with the usual standbys echinacea and goldenseal tout fewer side effects. Holistic practitioners also recommend drinking lots of water, going easy on the fat, sugar and dairy, and irrigating sinuses frequently with a lukewarm saline solution infused with mucous membrane-calming herbs.

Recent studies point out that social interaction has an immune boosting effect. As a result, Karyn Siegel-Maier, herbalist and author of

The Naturally Clean Home

, recommends the following for allergy symptom relief:

"

Stinging nettle

: 250 mg. freeze-dried extract every two to four hours or until symptoms subside

Ephedra

: 12.5-25 mg. 3x day

Quercetin

: 400 mg. 2x day between meals

Echinacea

: 350 mg 3x day

Garlic

: tablet equivalent of 10 cloves of garlic

Human Beings

: As many as you can tolerate"

(The last recommendation may be hopelessly naive, considering the bad mood resulting from wind and a congested liver.)

So it's a fine spring day, sunny and vibrant, and you wake up immunotherapized, herbalized and irrigated. When you open the door, a blast of gritty wind of mythic proportions knocks you on your ass. The recently emerging field of biometeorology claims that you will be more likely to be forgetful, irritable, accident-prone and generally spacey on the windy days of spring. One of the earliest studies, rivetingly titled "The Effect of Weather on Mood, Productivity, and Frequency of Emotional Crisis in a Temperate Continental Climate" (International Journal of Biometeorology, 1988), drew the following conclusion: "The weather appears to influence mood and productivity." No shit? Some other surprising results: Males are more affected than females. People with "mild" emotional or psychological problems are more stressed by warm, windy days than any other group. And surely in error: "Psychologically troubled people appear to be more affected by weather than university students."

In 2004, a group of researchers determined that ambient temperatures also affect mood. "The optimal temperature for mood for most Americans is 72 degrees, about room temperature, with mood decreasing if temperatures became significantly higher or lower." Daytime highs in Santa Fe don't start to average about 72 degrees until mid-May, so wait until then to ask your boss for a raise or break that bad news to your domestic partner. If your boss or partner is from elsewhere, consider this: "There were regional differences, however, with mood peaking at 65 degrees in Michigan and 86 degrees in considerably warmer Texas." (Don't look for cheerful tourists from our neighboring state until about mid-July.) With the usual pragmatism of research scientists, the study also offers this advice: "If you wish to reap the psychological benefits of good springtime weather, go outside.''

You might want to get some acupuncture and administer some milk thistle or other holistic liver cleansing remedy before you do anything. As mentioned already, spring, according to various systems of Oriental medicine, aggravates the liver, which is considered to be the seat of anger. According to a Ming Dynasty text by Gao Lian, a Taoist physician, "People in the spring-time [may have] heat toxins and wind qi ascending and penetrating to the nape of the neck, headache, or facial swelling and [they may have] wind heat astringent [i.e., rough] eyes." Wind qi and rough eyes could cause irritability all on their own, but acupuncture expert Linda Loyd adds, "The emotion most closely tied to the liver and the quality of spring is the explosive nature of anger. You may find yourself becoming easily angered over trivial matters. Anger is the most yang of the emotions and therefore is congruent with the spring. Emotional difficulties related to anger that may bubble up are impatience, frustration, resentment, rudeness, edginess, arrogance and aggression."

Loyd advises a lighter, more springlike diet, including fresh greens and less food in general. Loyd reiterates the "go outside" motif: "Listen to the sounds of spring as birds busily fly overhead foraging for nest material," she suggests. "Remember you are a part of nature and spring is the time for celebrating the new life around you," not haranguing sales clerks and engaging in aggravated assault.

On the one hand, spring offers a chance for rebirth, vitality, renewed optimism and a resurgence of hope. On the other, in the words of the old jazz standard: "Doctors once prescribed a tonic/Sulphur and molasses was the dose/Didn't help a bit, my condition must be chronic/Spring can really hang you up the most."

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