BOSTON -- If you suffer from allergies, you don't need to look at the calendar to know it's the middle of August and the beginning of ragweed season.

NewsCenter 5's Liz Brunner reported Thursday that if you plan to grin and bear it through another sneezing, stuffed up season you might want to reconsider. Many allergy specialists now believe leaving your allergies untreated could lead to much more serious problems.

Ragweed's dreaded pollen is returning with a vengeance as it does every year in mid-August.

"Our patients are better able to tell us when the season begins than are the pollen counts given out by the weather men," Massachusetts General Hospital Dr. Aidan Long said.

Long treats hundreds of allergy sufferers at Mass General Hospital. He's concerned about the people who don't seek treatment for their seasonal allergies.

"If you get severe nasal allergies and the inflammation that goes along with them and leave that untreated, it can then lead to sinus infection or even the development of asthma," Long said.

Allergies can affect not only the nasal passages but also the sinuses and the lungs. Long says ignoring inflammation in the nose can lead to inflammation in the sinuses and lungs as well.

"We now realize that they're all linked together," he said.

They are being set off by the change to drier, windy weather that helps the ragweed to spread. Don Campbell's allergies have been making his life more difficult than usual. So he came to Long for help before it got any worse.

"I don't want to let it get to the point where I have to take allergy shots and have constant treatment," Campbell said.

"It's not necessary to suffer with your allergy symptoms. There are such good effective safe medications out there that virtually everybody can have control of their allergies," Long said.

Allergy specialists said that prescription nasal steroids and allergy shots can help severe ragweed sufferers, and over-the-counter anti-histamines and decongestants are good for milder cases.

Either way, you have to be patient. Ragweed season lasts until the first frost, which is usually sometime in November.