Every year, the spring season brings pollen to the air and if allergy sufferers aren't prepared they could be dealing with the symptoms.
While Knoxville is usually in the top 10 list of cities from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, the latest numbers show the city was ranked #9 when it comes to allergy sufferers in the spring time.
Studies show that up to 20% of the U.S. population deals with allergies in the fall and the spring. Dr. Robert Overholt is an Allergist-Immunologist and he said Knoxville was ranked #1, 3 years in a row.
"Knoxville is a city where you are going to have allergies, so you have to know how to handle them," Dr. Overholt said.
Dr. Overholt said the numbers in the surveys can be misleading because they're calculated by pollen scores, number of allergy medicines each patient uses, and number of allergy doctors per patient.
So if less people take medicine or don’t go to a doctor, numbers won’t exactly be accurate.
The latest data for spring allergies out now are from spring of 2016 and Knoxville ranked #9. That's 4 spots up from #5 in 2016.
We can verify that Knoxville is not the worst places to live for allergy sufferers right now, but those numbers can always change from year to year.