Andy Vaughn jogged along the Deschutes River Trail during a recent Central Oregon Running Klub group run. With every few strides, he breathed in deeply, no longer aggravated by the pollen allergies that had always made exercise miserable in Corvallis, where he lived previously.

“Moving here, it’s definitely a game changer. I work for myself so I can spend my afternoons being active. In Corvallis, it would be rough depending on allergies,” said Vaughn, 36.

Family medicine doctor Joe Volpi, in town for a rotation at St. Charles Bend, who was also running with the group, knows that Central Oregon harbors a different set of pollens that wreak havoc — namely, juniper. His wife’s allergies to juniper — which is the first allergenic tree in Central Oregon to unleash its pollen — is so severe a perpetual sinus infection impedes her ultra-marathon training.

“But when she goes over to the (Willamette) Valley, she’s fine,” Volpi said.

Hay fever is a condition that affects 40 to 60 million Americans, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Its common name is misleading; it is the catch-all term for allergic reactions to airborne pollen grains and other particulates — and is not a fever. Symptoms to pollen allergies typically include watery, itchy eyes, inflamed nasal passages, post-nasal drip, sinus pressure and fatigue. Common allergy treatments include antihistamines, anti-inflammatory nasal sprays, and eye drops, according to the Bend Memorial Clinic.

Central Oregon’s airborne allergy season begins in late February or early March when juniper begins to shed pollen, said Dr. Adam Williams, a BMC allergist and an avid runner and cyclist. It peaks around mid-April, when deciduous trees like birch, cottonwood and maple fill the air with their pollen. Their season lasts about a month.

The grasses begin pollinating in early June and stretch to mid-July. Wild weeds such as Russian thistle and firebrush will pollinate throughout the summer until the first frost in fall. Presently, the deciduous trees’ pollen count isn’t yet high enough to trigger allergic reactions. Climate change and residually rising carbon dioxide levels also fuel trees’ pollination, Williams said.

Many patients who recently visited his office said late April was particularly egregious, when sunshine and warm temperatures lured allergy sufferers onto bike rides and runs through atypically blustery — and pollen-chocked — days. Such exercise, for its exposure to allergens, can make reactions worse.

“You’re breathing faster, you’re riding into more of it than if you were walking or driving,” Williams said. “You get a larger dose when you’re riding fast and into the direction of the pollen.”

Allergic reactions can clog nasal passages, which work as natural air humidifiers for the lungs and don’t function as well with dry air, Williams said. Some of the chemicals the body releases during an allergy attack go to the brain and induce a flu-like feeling that tells the body to not be active.

“A lot of people who come into my office say their nose and eyes are bothersome, but the main issue is they can’t exercise — they’re completely exhausted and they cannot perform at the level they’re used to — especially during juniper season. It’s striking to me that something I mainly think of as a nose and eye problem can really affect people’s feeling well — and also their athletic performance — in such a systemic way.”

While exercising during allergy season can range from uncomfortable to miserable, doing so doesn’t harm athletes’ bodies, Williams said. He’s quick to point out that people whose allergies trigger an asthmatic reaction should, however, be very careful when exercising during pollen season.

“That’s an important distinction for people to understand: if you have coughing, wheezing … or shortness of breath during allergy season, that’s asthma,” Williams said. “If an athlete isn’t doing well for a week or two because juniper pollen levels are high, and they go out on a high-pollen day, they could have a potentially serious allergic reaction in their lungs that could be bad enough that they need a trip to the emergency room.”

Retired professional runner and Picky Bars co-founder Lauren Fleshman has had firsthand experience with the perils of performing with asthma-inducing allergies, which are triggered by any number of spring and summer trees and grasses.

“It’s tough to train as an athlete … When you have an asthma attack while performing at your absolute limit, it’s scary,” she said, adding that an attack has never necessitated a trip to the emergency room but has forced her to drop out of some races. She likened an allergy-induced asthma attack to breathing through an ever-constricting straw.

Her running career has meant she has been on the road for high-stakes competitions that may be scheduled at the height of local pollen counts, such as the NCAA Championships and the Olympic Trials, the latter of which, in recent years, has been held at Hayward Field in Eugene in late June — just as grass pollination is kicking into high gear.

The 35-year-old Bend resident said that even though her allergist helped her mix and match allergy medications until she had found the right tool for the job in any particular race location, she would never feel her best in spring and summer races in Eugene, where she previously lived and suffered from a variety of pollen allergies.

“I always felt like I was dragging, and that may be a side effect of the medication, but I probably wouldn’t have noticed it if I wasn’t trying to compete at my optimum,” she said. “You feel like you’re competing in a fog … There’s always a negative that goes with the positive, but I would take feeling sluggish over the allergies, though, any day of the week.”

Since Fleshman moved to Bend from Eugene in 2013, she has been able to reduce her allergy medication and stop using an inhaler. She battles her juniper allergies with an over-the-counter, 24-hour allergy medication.

One of her best performances while suffering from allergies came at the 2008 Olympic Trials 5,000-meter race, where she finished fifth when grass pollen was in full swing. Her allergies are often a variable in her races.

“I feel like I would have had a better shot of making the (2008 Olympic) team if it had been held elsewhere,” she said. “But I’ll never know.”

Dr. Kraig Jacobson, a doctor and medical director at the Oregon Allergy Associates, said grass pollen often complicates athletes’ performances during the summer months.

Based in Eugene, the OAA, in participation with the National Allergy Bureau, is the sole organization that tests pollen levels in Oregon.

Pollen counts are determined by using a vacuum-like machine that can detect how many pollen particles are present in a cubic meter of air. A low tree pollen count is 14 particles or lower. A very high count may exceed 500 particles.

Because no pollen counts are conducted in Oregon east of the Cascades, Jacobson said Central Oregonians can glean insight into our region’s pollen activities by looking at Eugene’s levels, which OAA posts regularly on its website. However, some arithmetic is required. For any particular pollen count of Eugene’s deciduous trees and grasses, Central Oregonians can arrive at a ballpark count by reducing that number by a factor of 10, Jacobson said. When it comes to observing juniper pollen levels, which are scarce west of the Cascades, Jacobson said the only barometer is a head count of people, wracked by symptoms, sitting in the waiting rooms of Central Oregon allergists.

“After it’s been windy and dry for a number of consecutive days in early spring, it’s almost a given that juniper pollination is going to be significant,” Jacobson said. “I wish I could stick a pollen reader out there and tell you exactly what it was.”

— Reporter: 541-617-7816, pmadsen@bendbulletin.com

“If an athlete isn’t doing well for a week or two because juniper pollen levels are high, and they go out on a high-pollen day, they could have a potentially serious allergic reaction in their lungs that could be bad enough that they need a trip to the emergency room.”— Bend Memorial Clinic allergist Dr. Adam Williams