If summer to you equals long, hot afternoons drinking pints of cider and glasses of rosé in glorious pub gardens, you're going to curse the day you developed hay fever more than ever.
Because I hate to break it to you, but alcohol makes hay fever worse. It's true. The one solace you had - getting so delightfully pissed you don't even mind that you just sneezed for 45 minutes straight - is officially a no-go.
I'll let Dr Pixie McKenna, GP at The London Clinic, break it down for you, because I can't hack being the bearer of bad news any longer.
It's all to do with 'histamines', Dr Pixie told Cosmopolitan UK. And you'll no doubt be familiar with that term from the stashes of antihistamine tablets you've got cluttering your bathroom cabinets this time of year.
"When our immune system reacts, it releases a chemical called histamine as an alert to something that it identifies as harmful to the body," explained Dr Pixie, adding: "It's a bit like the sprinkler system that comes on when there is a fire."
The problem is, the doctor went on to say: "Alcoholic drinks contain histamine, the very substance we are trying to defend ourselves against in the hay fever cycle.
"Given alcohol contains varying amounts of histamine, it is counter intuitive to ingest histamines in drinks while simultaneously taking antihistamines by mouth, as one contradicts the other," Dr Pixie told Cosmopolitan UK.
According to the expert, red wine in particular can worsen hay fever symptoms due to the high levels of histamine it contains.
And Dr Pixie had another word of warning about drinking alcohol while taking antihistamine tablets for hay fever. "Alcohol can increase the potentially sedative effects of antihistamines, so the two are not a good combination," she advised.
So it's up to you: you can pretend you never read this article and wonder why oh why your hay fever is so appallingly bad after a boozy picnic in the park; or you can follow the wise doctor's advice and lay off the G&Ts et al until the summer season passes. I know which one I'm going to choose. Pass me the tissues.
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Cat is Cosmopolitan UK's features editor covering women's issues, health and current affairs. news, features and health. The route to her heart is a simple combination of pasta and cheese (somewhat ironic considering the whole health writing thing), and she finds it difficult to commit to TV series so currently has about 14 different ones on the go.
