Is your heater making you sick? How to avoid cold-like symptoms when you crank up the temperature.

As the temperatures start to dip, you may be thinking about turning on the heat for the first time this season. But before you fire it up, be prepared that feeling nice and toasty may also come with a stuffy nose, dry throat, cough or even a headache. These cold-like symptoms are referred to as “heater sickness.”

“This happens because dust, pollen and other allergens accumulate in your ducts during the warmer months,” Dr. Jesus Lizarzaburu, a family physician in Yorktown, Va., tells Yahoo Life. “When you turn on the heat for the first time in the season, these particles get blown into the air, which can lead to sinus congestion, sneezing, coughing, sore throat or other allergic symptoms.”

The dry air produced by heating systems can irritate your nasal passages and throat, which can in turn cause discomfort, Lizarzaburu adds. Dry air can also make it harder to fight off colds. According to Cleveland Clinic family medicine physician Daniel Allan, “The mucus that normally should be gooey and thick and can trap infection gets drier. So you’re more likely to get a cold because your mucus is not as able to catch things that you breathe in.”

Jeffrey May of May Indoor Air Investigations and co-author of “My House Is Killing Me!” says that there can be a variety of allergens including pet fur, mold, mites and pollen in furnace blower cabinets and duct systems.

“In addition, there is dust that has accumulated on the heat exchanger over the summer that is burned off the first time the furnace lights up, so the air stinks from burned dust,” he tells Yahoo Life.

Ways to avoid heater sickness

If you want to reduce your risk of getting heater sickness, experts recommend the following:

Choose the right filters

May says the best way to prevent microbial growth is to have a clean central air system and use a pleated media filter with a MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values) rating of 11. The rating, developed by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, reports a filter’s ability to capture larger participles between 0.3 and 10 microns. The higher the MERV rating, the better the filter is at trapping specific types of particles.

“Filter holders should be airtight at the perimeter, and only pleated media filters should be used,” May says.

Use humidifiers throughout your home

Heating systems often reduce humidity levels in the air, which can dry out your nasal passages and throat, leading to irritation and discomfort in your throat and sinuses and can trigger asthma, says Lizarzaburu.

Humidifiers can add moisture back into dry air caused by heaters. Lizarzaburu recommends them, especially if you or your family members have a history of allergies or asthma.

However, make sure to keep these clean, too. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), bacteria and fungi often grow in humidifiers and can be released in the mist. Breathing in dirty mist can cause flu-like symptoms and more serious infection. People with allergies or asthma may experience increased symptoms due to dirty humidifiers.

The CPSC recommends cleaning your humidifier often, not allowing film and scale to develop and scrubbing it with a brush to remove any mold. Using distilled or demineralized water in your humidifier can reduce the buildup of scale and the release of dust.

Clean your home regularly

Dust and allergens in the home can trigger sneezing, coughing and other heater sickness symptoms. Lizarzaburu recommends vacuuming and dusting your living environment regularly to help minimize dust particles and reduce allergens.

Stay hydrated and take antihistamines, if needed

Lizarzaburu recommends drinking plenty of fluids to keep your throat and nasal passages hydrated. “You can also use a saline nasal spray,” he adds.

For his patients who have allergies, Lizarzaburu suggests taking an over-the-counter antihistamine such as loratadine, fexofenadine or cetirizine a few days before turning on their heating system.

“Those who have allergies or asthma should be more proactive in taking all the steps listed above in order to minimize their symptoms while they turn on the heat for the season,” says Lizarzaburu.

For most people, Lizarzaburu says that, for most people, heater illness symptoms shouldn’t last more than a few days. “However, if symptoms last more than a week, you may want to check in with your family doctor, as these symptoms could progress to sinus infections, worsening allergies or asthma exacerbations,” he says.