Crohn's Pollen Theory?

I flare at the same time every year also! I suspected stress had a lot to do with it, as this time of year is usually stressful for me but pollen may play a part too.

I think I flare more toward the end of the summer and through winter too, but it's hard to tell for sure. Past allergy tests have shown pollen to be an allergen to me. Haven't been tested in a while, though.

If it's true that CD is autoimmune with possibly different triggers, than that could explain why flares can seem so unpredictable and inconsistent.

I think for some there is definitely some sort of connection with allergies. If I flare it is always late spring or fall. My worst flares are always in the fall and the 2 times my flares put me in the hospital I had severe allergy attacks before the flare.

I do best when I take my allergy meds consistently, starting in Feb and taking them all the way to November. I don't think it keeps me in remission, but I do feel better when I take Claritin every day without a break.

I think there is certainly a correlation, but not because allergies cause Crohn's. The human body is a delicate machine. When one thing goes wrong, it's more likely that other things will go wrong as well. Crohn's is simply the immune system running out of control. If your body thinks its being attacked by pollens, it's going to activate your immune system, which is then going to get worse/resume attacking its old enemy. The root cause is whatever's removed the F.O.F. system inside our guts, not whatever triggers our immune systems. If nothing triggered our immune systems, we'd die.

my worst flare started in February

There's certainly nothing in that article that I would disagree with.
As far as allergies to pollen are concerned, well that sort of thing is all about the immune system reacting to specific proteins found in pollen (which can vary from year to year - for example, birch pollen is much more likely to promote an immune response when the birches are stressed by hot weather, because the pollen has more of a specific protein then ) and if the antigens to that protein meet up with another structural protein that looks similar, in the gut...that's Mother Nature's equivalent of "friendly fire", I suppose !
Plus of course, Crohnies have genes like NOD2 and the others whose names are too complex for me to ever remember, and what they do in Crohn's is they are hyperactive at reacting to changes in the gut. So if the immune system response is a type three allergy and that involves eosinophils (a form of white bllood cell) then our genes may jam on production of that type of cell, and thus of all the inflammation that it would maybe only produce normally in a very limited way.
I am always much worse in winter, but I ascribe that to lack of Vitamin D - which has huge impact on the immune system - and poorer diet. ( I manage my Crohn's principally by diet.)
My first big flare up came after viral pneumonia, in autumn/winter - viruses are great at randomly switching on other creatures genes !

Lets not forget , Fungi . Lots of illnesses are being contributed to fungi . Not to be confused with , FunGuy. So it may be the fungus amongus .

My GI does place some thought there.  He is concerned with my excess sinus drainage and considers it not good for the problem at hand.

Yep, people with overactive immune systems would be prone to both allergies and auto immune dz. I have both. I've had allergies all my life then got auto immune diseases in adulthood. I've also heard that people who have a bad insult to their immune system like a really horrible infection can then develop auto immune diseases. The immune system makes a mistake and then turns on our own tissues. Of course, genetics play a role and then the environment (virus, bacteria, fungus, chemical, whatever) seals the deal-:) That's what I learned when I took immunology in college.