Allergies are caused by what?

What can I do about allergies caused by my air conditioner?

• Last week I started getting what seemed to be a soar throat that would get worse whenever I put the air-conditioner on fan instead of regular cool mode. (I never made the place too cool..if anything I try to save energy by leaving it on the warm side.) I thought maybe I was getting a cold, but instead all that happened was that my glands swelled up and so did my veins in my arms. My throat felt like there was a huge golf ball in it and I could barely swallow. I hadn't eaten anything different so I didn't know what was wrong and I wasn't getting any other symptoms. So I finally decided to open all the windows and turn off the air conditioner. 12 hours later the swelling has gone down dramatically. I still feel a ball in my throat but it's much, much less than it was before. The only thing is that I'm really HOT. I get bad excema when it is too hot so I'ld like to cool down the place. Why is my air conditioner doing this to me now? How can I stop it? I bought it several weeks ago and this only started happening last week.

• Answer:

  It could be a dust or pollen allergy rather than just the air itself that's causing your sore throat. When an air conditioning unit is on, it will recirculate air continually and will sweep up with it dust / pollen lying around. Normally, this would probably not affect you as it's just sitting on surfaces, but when it starts blowing around and you're breathing it in, that's when it will cause problems. If it is this, you might have to find some other way of cooling yourself like iced drinks or opening windows. Or, you could try taking an anti-histamine tablet to see if this reduces the problem.