Why do pollen make you sneeze?

But why do pollen make you sneeze?

Because humans have lived with plants throughout our evolutionary history, you probably think we're more or less "immune" to pollen. However, each year, pollen still causes countless people to sneeze and encounter different types of allergies. Read on to understand why!

Pollen helps plants reproduce.

What is pollen?

Pollen helps plants reproduce: male plants produce pollen to pollinate female plants. However, for this powder to work, it needs to be taken from male to female. This transport process is the way that pollen sticks to your nose and makes you sneeze.

Every plant, from flowers to trees, and even grass, produces pollen. However, not all pollen causes allergies. Most plants with colorful flowers often rely on insects, such as bees, to carry pollen from one tree to another. Because pollen is always attached to an insect or a tree, it cannot fall into your nose and cause allergies.

However, other plants can use the wind to spread pollen around. This pollen is very light, so it can easily be carried by air. The atmosphere you breathe in the spring will be filled with this kind of pollen, because this is the season of plant pollination, making allergic reactions occur more often.

This also explains why you often sneeze when it is light breeze and dry, because there are so many pollen floating in the air. When it rains, pollen that gets wet will not be able to fly around and get into your nose.

What happens when pollen gets in your nose?

Why do pollen make you sneeze when you accidentally inhale?

The inside of your nose is mucus. Although it looks . disgusting when shot from the nose (like when you sneeze for example), mucus is important for health. It is like a barrier, retaining dirt before they enter the lungs, and helps keep you from getting sick. Pollen is just one of many things trapped by mucus.

However, pollen allergy causes the nose to become inflamed after the pollen enters: this is called rhinitis . Other things can also cause rhinitis - for example, you will have rhinitis whenever you have a cold.

In addition to making you sneeze, allergic rhinitis can also cause you to have a stuffy nose, runny or itchy nose, and other uncomfortable symptoms.

These symptoms are the result of an immune system reaction. Your immune system is the body's defense system . When you have an allergy, the immune system views harmless things, like pollen, as a threat. So if you have a pollen allergy, your immune system will react to pollen in the nose thinking it is a dangerous intruder - even if it's not really dangerous.

This overreaction of the immune system causes allergic rhinitis, with all associated symptoms including sneezing. When you sneeze because of a pollen allergy, it's your body trying to get rid of dangerous intruders out of your nose.

Pollen allergy causes the nose to become inflamed after the pollen enters.

Why does not everyone have allergies?

Not everyone is allergic to pollen, and not everyone is allergic to the same pollen. Why?

Scientists are not sure the answer to this question - because they still do not understand why we have allergies in the first place. After all, the overreacting reactions of the immune system are harmful to us rather than helping, so it's not really right for them to spread to people.

According to one theory, allergy is the result of the body's natural defense against parasites, but it doesn't go as planned. However, another theory is that allergies are actually the body's defense against poisons. In the past, perhaps there were really dangerous pollen types, which is probably why many people's bodies still consider them a threat.

However, up to this point, we do not fully understand why allergies exist, or why they are so widespread. We only know for some reason that some people consider harmless allergens like pollen to be dangerous. The immune system works and does everything it can to get rid of pollen, like making you sneeze and causing a runny nose.

Obviously, the experience of sneezing because pollen is not very exciting. But it is evidence that the immune system is trying to protect you - a trait that has probably helped people survive thousands of years, when our bodies were once faced with dangerous threats. which has now been forgotten.