{"id":63626,"date":"2026-03-11T22:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T02:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63626"},"modified":"2026-03-11T22:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T02:07:18","slug":"youre-spot-on-the-asthma-and-allergy-foundation-of-america-aafa-just-released-its-2026-allergy-capitals-report-this-month-and-lakeland-officially-landed-at-20-on-the-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/11\/youre-spot-on-the-asthma-and-allergy-foundation-of-america-aafa-just-released-its-2026-allergy-capitals-report-this-month-and-lakeland-officially-landed-at-20-on-the-list\/","title":{"rendered":"You\u2019re spot on. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) just released its 2026 Allergy Capitals report this month, and Lakeland officially landed at #20 on the list"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is actually the only city in Florida to make the top 20 this year.<\/sup> While its pollen counts for trees, grasses, and weeds were considered “average,” it was pushed into the top tier primarily due to a lower availability of board-certified allergy specialists relative to its population.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

How the Rankings Broke Down for 2026<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The report evaluates the 100 most-populated U.S. cities based on three main categories:<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Category<\/strong><\/td>Lakeland’s 2026 Status<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
Total Pollen Score<\/strong><\/td>Average<\/td><\/tr>
Over-the-Counter Med Use<\/strong><\/td>Average<\/td><\/tr>
Allergy Specialist Availability<\/strong><\/td>Worse than Average<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Why the High Ranking?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • The “Specialist Gap”:<\/strong> Lakeland\u2019s biggest struggle in the report is the lack of local allergists and immunologists, which makes it more “challenging” to manage symptoms compared to cities with more medical infrastructure.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Climate Trends:<\/strong> AAFA noted that warmer, more humid climates in the Southeast are seeing longer and more intense pollen seasons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Comparison:<\/strong> For context, neighboring cities like Sarasota (#28)<\/strong> and Tampa (#29)<\/strong> followed shortly after, but Lakeland remains the most difficult spot in the state for allergy sufferers according to this year’s data.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Interestingly, Lakeland also ranked significantly high (#7<\/strong>) in the AAFA’s 2024 Asthma Capitals<\/strong> report, suggesting the local air quality and allergen environment are a consistent topic for health researchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It is actually the only city in Florida to make the top 20 this year. While its pollen counts for trees, grasses, and weeds were considered “average,” it was pushed… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEwLndlYnA_Zml0PTI1OSUyQzE5NSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IllvdVx1MjAxOXJlIHNwb3Qgb24uIFRoZSBBc3RobWEgYW5kIEFsbGVyZ3kgRm91bmRhdGlvbiBvZiBBbWVyaWNhIChBQUZBKSBqdXN0IHJlbGVhc2VkIGl0cyAyMDI2IEFsbGVyZ3kgQ2FwaXRhbHMgcmVwb3J0IHRoaXMgbW9udGgsIGFuZCBMYWtlbGFuZCBvZmZpY2lhbGx5IGxhbmRlZCBhdCAjMjAgb24gdGhlIGxpc3QiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.jxKBf23EfsJrO-I5n9QcI09sft8eoNLjK5PLCNT7b3MMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[14028,14027],"class_list":["post-63626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-and-lakeland-officially-landed-at-20-on-the-list","tag-youre-spot-on-the-asthma-and-allergy-foundation-of-america-aafa-just-released-its-2026-allergy-capitals-report-this-month"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63628,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63626\/revisions\/63628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}