Is it possible for a person with hay fever to become seasonal asthma?

  ? Summer and autumn pollen-induced seasonal allergic rhinitis is a common disease in China north of the Yangtze River, and we found clinically that many patients with summer and autumn pollen-induced allergic rhinitis also have combined seasonal asthma, and some of them have very severe asthma symptoms in summer and autumn.  Our study of 1120 patients with summer and autumn hay fever showed that the age range of first onset of summer and autumn hay fever was 2 to 68 years, and 15 to 34 years was the high incidence of summer and autumn pollen-induced rhinitis; 25 to 44 years was the high incidence of asthma, and the average age of first onset of asthma was 5 years later than the average age of first onset of rhinitis. Of all summer and fall hay fever patients, 37% developed seasonal asthma within 5 years and 47% within 9 years. Since the development of rhinitis to asthma in summer and fall hay fever patients is mostly concentrated in the young adult stage from 25 to 54, and the process takes 5 to 10 years, the proportion of summer and fall hay fever patients with rhinitis alone is higher before the age of 34; the proportion of asthma increases after the age of 35, but also 18% of patients have their first attack of rhinitis and asthma in the same year. Some summer and fall pollen-induced asthma symptoms were severe, and 77.9% of patients with their induced seasonal asthma required oral wheezing medication; 77.7% were unable to lie down at night; and 30.4% required emergency aminophylline or glucocorticoid-like medication.  Nearly half of the patients with summer and fall hay fever are at risk of developing seasonal allergic asthma within 9 years of their first onset is a clinical problem that should not be ignored. The peak age of onset of summer and fall pollen allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma coincides with the energetic and socially productive phase of life, so it is important to seek timing and methods to stop and intervene in the progression of summer and fall pollen allergic rhinitis to asthma. In its guiding document on immunotherapy of allergic diseases, the World Health Organization states that specific immunotherapy is currently the only treatment that can stop the natural course of allergic diseases. Therefore, specific immunotherapy should be started as early as possible for patients with severe allergic rhinitis induced by pollen in summer and autumn to prevent it from developing into asthma; for patients with existing asthma, specific immunotherapy should be actively administered to prevent further aggravation of asthma. In the treatment of allergic rhinitis or allergic asthma, the upper and lower respiratory tracts should be taken into account. In addition to the drugs used for rhinitis or asthma respectively, a combination of drugs effective for both should be used.