This spring, for roughly 80 million Americans, the season doesn’t really feel like a gift. It’s more like a loop of sneezing, sniffles, and coughing—especially for kids and working-age adults, who tend to have higher pollen allergy rates than older people.
A quick explanation often points to aging immune systems. As people get older, certain immune responses weaken, and that can mean milder reactions to seasonal allergies in seniors. Researchers have found that aging is associated with less of immunoglobulin E (IgE), an allergy-causing antibody, which lines up with the observation that fewer older adults end up with classic pollen allergies.
But Misryoum newsroom reported that this doesn’t tell the whole story. Changes happening in younger people as a group are also part of why allergy numbers look different now. “Young adults today have more allergies compared to the same age [group] 20 years ago,” allergist and immunologist Ravi Viswanathan of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health told Misryoum. “And it’s being driven by a mixed bag of issues.” The wording matters there—mixed bag—because it’s not just one biological switch being flipped.
One big complication is that many older adults experience symptoms that sound like allergies, yet aren’t. Runny noses and congestion can show up from other airborne irritants, like cigarette smoke, perfumes, or cleaning products. This condition is sometimes called nonallergic rhinitis. Misryoum editorial desk noted that as the control of blood vessels in the nose and mucus glands slips with age, some people lose the “telltale” allergy pattern—like rapid-fire sneezing.
Still, it would be wrong to assume seniors never have true allergies. In Viswanathan’s older patients who report symptoms, about 40 percent have allergies, while the rest have nonallergic rhinitis. So the age-related picture is real, but it’s not a clean split. Misryoum analysis indicates that individual biology continues to matter, even as population trends point one way.
Meanwhile, allergies are going up across the broader population, with about one third of people worldwide having a food, drug, or environmental allergy. Misryoum newsroom reported that scientists are working through why that rise is happening—and how multiple factors may overlap. One reason: pollen seasons have become longer and more intense in recent decades. Higher carbon dioxide levels can help pollen-producing plants thrive, and hotter air can increase turbulence that carries more pollen farther.
Pollen is also meeting an unhelpful partner: air pollution. Even though many major pollutants have declined over the long term, Misryoum editorial team stated that pollen can “capture pollutants” like a sponge. The immune system then treats this mixture as more threatening than pollen alone. Research has shown that pollution can raise IgE antibodies and drive airway inflammation—basically turning the volume up on allergic responses.
There’s another twist that feels less like a single cause and more like a lifestyle shift. On average, people today spend 90 percent of their lives indoors, while many older people, as children, ventured outside more and encountered a wider diversity of microbes. Misryoum newsroom reported that those early exposures may help “train” the immune system to recognize outside invaders instead of overreacting for life.
And yes, diagnosis and treatment play roles too. Allergies can be diagnosed more frequently now, but experts say that explains only part of the rise. Misryoum analysis indicates that getting the right diagnosis matters because management differs—blood and skin tests can distinguish allergies from irritants. For seniors, antihistamines and sprays may be necessary, but dosing has to be careful; side effects can hit harder.
There’s also the practical advice, the part that doesn’t fit neatly in a lab. Misryoum newsroom reported that for people struggling with symptoms, choosing times and locations away from busy roads can reduce exposure to both pollen and pollution. “There has to be a balance,” Viswanathan said—enough outdoor exposure to let the immune system learn from microbes, but not so much that it turns into a symptom cycle. Honestly, you can almost smell it when you step outside on a warm day—like spring is close, then your nose reminds you it’s complicated—and the science is still trying to untangle just how.
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