Newswise — MAYWOOD, IL – For more than 20 years, Loyola Medicine has provided the Chicago area with allergy counts every weekday via Twitter during the allergy season. The Loyola Medicine Allergy Count will begin 2022 reporting on April 1.
Rachna Shah, MD, leads the Loyola Medicine Allergy Count. Pollen samples are gathered every weekday morning during allergy season from the roof of Gottlieb Memorial Hospital. Pollen grains and mold spores are collected from a cubic meter sample of air and counted under a microscope. The counts include daily numbers for mold, tree, grass and weed pollens.
"The daily count helps the community better understand the allergies that affect them daily during allergy season," says Dr. Shah. "When people experience allergy symptoms, they can look to our counts and identify the causes of their symptoms. It's an extra layer of security when everyone is on high alert regarding their health."
Spring allergies most often cause itchy, watery eyes and runny nose, sneezing, nasal congestion and post-nasal drip. Difficulty breathing, coughing, wheezing and/or shortness of breath also can be caused by seasonal allergies.
Allergy season commonly runs from March through the first hard freeze in October. Trees reach peak allergen season from March to May, grass from May to June, and weeds and ragweed in August. Mold peaks occur in damp conditions throughout the season.
The daily report for the Loyola Medicine Allergy Count can be found on Twitter. For more information, please visit loyolamedicine.org/allergy-count.
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About Loyola Medicine
Loyola Medicine, a member of Trinity Health, is a nationally ranked academic, quaternary care system based in Chicago's western suburbs. The three-hospital system includes Loyola University Medical Center, Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, MacNeal Hospital, as well as convenient locations offering primary care, specialty care and immediate care services from more than 1,800 physicians throughout Cook, Will and DuPage counties. Loyola is a 547-licensed-bed hospital in Maywood that includes the William G. and Mary A. Ryan Center for Heart & Vascular Medicine, the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, a Level 1 trauma center, Illinois's largest burn center, a certified comprehensive stroke center and a children’s hospital. Having delivered compassionate care for over 50 years, Loyola also trains the next generation of caregivers through its academic affiliation with Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine and Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing. Established in 1961, Gottlieb is a 247-licensed-bed community hospital in Melrose Park with the Judd A. Weinberg Emergency Department, the Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery and Bariatric Care and the Loyola Cancer Care & Research Facility at the Marjorie G. Weinberg Cancer Center. MacNeal is a 374-licensed-bed teaching hospital in Berwyn with advanced medical, surgical and psychiatric services, acute rehabilitation, an inpatient skilled nursing facility and a 68-bed behavioral health program and community clinics.
For more information, visit loyolamedicine.org. You can also follow Loyola Medicine on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.
About Trinity Health
Trinity Health is one of the largest not-for-profit, Catholic health care systems in the nation. It is a family of 115,000 colleagues and nearly 26,000 physicians and clinicians caring for diverse communities across 25 states. Nationally recognized for care and experience, the Trinity Health system includes 88 hospitals, 131 continuing care locations, the second largest PACE program in the country, 125 urgent care locations and many other health and well-being services. Based in Livonia, Michigan, its annual operating revenue is $20.2 billion with $1.2 billion returned to its communities in the form of charity care and other community benefit programs.
For more information, visit www.trinity-health.org or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.
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