This time of year, and through June, lots of people escape the Willamette Valley's pollens by going to the coast on weekends. People who are sensitive to pollen know that their attacks of sniffling and sneezing are only going to get worse in the next couple of months. Beginning next month, the grasses take over. That's when Kerry Mager packs up her beach towel and heads west. If I just go early in the morning and just spend the whole day there, it really helps to kind of purge all the things from my system, refresh my body a little bit.
Doctors call it the priming concept.
The first experiment was done in Buffalo, N.Y., when there was about 10 feet of snow on the ground. They took ragweed-allergic patients. On day one, if it took 100 pollen grains to produce a 50 percent obstruction of nose, day two it would take less. Three it would take less. Four it would take less.