On top of those perennial miseries, some poor souls find their allergies or asthma get worse during the holidays. Luke's Medical Center in New York and past president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. This means you have to be extra-vigilant about piecrusts that may contain hidden nuts. So can dust and mold on ornaments, especially if you store them in dusty, moldy places like a basement. While some allergies have such a dramatic onset they're impossible to miss, others can be difficult to diagnose, especially in the winter when you're more likely to attribute sneezing and runny noses to colds.
Dust mites are a major culprit.
Even if you keep your own home scrupulously clean, when you visit other people over the holidays who aren't as vigilant you may get an allergy flareup. The mites reside in bedding, pillow cases, bedclothes, and feed off tiny particles of human skin that have been shed, says Dr. Robert K. Bush, chairman of the indoor allergen committee of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Dust mites also thrive in carpets, says Bush, a professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. At the very least, he or she may be able to help identify the problem and prescribe medications that can help. Claritin, Allegra or Zyrtec are a few of the many available.