Your health: Try these allergy survival tips

Try these allergy survival tips

A “pollen tsunami” is slamming allergy sufferers this year, NBC News reports.

“The early and mid-spring tree pollen and the grasses are hitting all at once to create misery and suffering,” said Dr. Clifford Bassett, medical director of Allergy & Asthma Care of New York.

Here are some survival tips that might help:

1. Use air conditioning.

2. Exercise indoors.

3. Wear a hat and sunglasses when outdoors.

4. Don't hang clothes out to dry.

5. Wash your face after going outdoors.

6. Keep pollen-laden clothing out of the bedroom.

7. Keep floors clean.

8. Consider “air-cleaning” indoor plants like English ivy and bamboo palm.

9. Shower every night. Rinse the pollens that have collected on your skin and hair throughout the day,

10. One other unusual tip experts recommend to cleanse your itchy eyes: baby shampoo. Gently irrigate your eyelids (eyes closed) with a mild, tear-free baby shampoo to remove allergens and pollutants. Your doctor may also recommend anti-allergy or moisturizing eye drops.

11. As for the nasty green pollen that lands on the porch: Don't sweep, hose it down.

Vacationer beware: hot tubs and germs

Summer is near, and families across the country are starting to dive into swimming pools. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that illnesses from pools and hot tubs are on the rise.

Jeff Rossen, NBC TODAY national investigative correspondent, and his team took samples from pools and hot tubs at five top hotel chains and sent them to a certified laboratory for analysis.

Although the team found visible dirt, mystery debris and hair in one hotel pool, the lab report brought surprising good news: no dangerous bacteria in any of the pools.

But when Rossen's team tested a hot tub, they found total coliform and enterococcus — in plain English, fecal matter.

“It means someone went to the bathroom, then got in the pool, or went to the bathroom in the pool,” said Dr. Robert Glatter, an emergency room physician at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital. “Two bad situations at best.”

Unfortunately, it can't be assumed that the chemicals and chlorine in the pools kill the bacteria. “They do to an extent, but not completely,” Glatter said. “So the bacteria can actually still thrive in the warm environment. And it's actually where they thrive best.”

In another hot tub, the Rossen team found something called pseudomonas. From it, Glatter explained, “you can get a bad infection called a hot tub rash” even after just a few minutes in the tub.