All you ever wanted to know about allergies

What is allergy?

Allergy is abnormal hypersensitivity of the body cells to a specific substance which is normally harmless to an ordinary person. It results in various types of reactions in the body leading to various symptoms.

Types of allergy

1) Exogenic: caused by mainly external factors.
2) Endogenic: caused by heredity or other internal factors.

Allergens:

The substances that cause reaction in the body or allergic person are called allergens or antigens. While almost anything can be an allergen, some substances are frequent offenders as listed below-

1. Dust an pollution
2. Pollens, plants
3. Cosmetics and perfumes
4. Certain foods like eggs, nuts etc
5. Preservatives ingested with food
6. Industrial wastes, automobile exhaust
7. Sunlight
8. Man made fibers
9. Certain drugs and vaccines
10. Insecticides and pesticides
11. Hair of certain animals, furs, mites etc.

Common symptoms of allergy

Most of the symptoms are elicited in the form of

1) Inflammation or swelling accompanied by pain
2) Itching
3) Redness and rise in temperature or the affected part
4) Sneezing
5) Rashes on the skin
6) Spotting on the skin

Common diseases associated with allergy

1) Respiratory system: Rhinitis, sinusitis, tonsillitis, adenoiditis, bronchial asthma, hay fever.
2) Gastro intestinal system: Stomatitis, peptic ulcer, flatulence, diarrhea, abdominal cramps
3) Musculo skeletal system: arthritis, myalgia, spondyosis
4) Skin: eczema, dandruff, urticaria, acne, psorisis, alopecia, pruritus valvae, dermatitis.

Some useful notes about allergy

1) Allergy is a reaction of the body to a harmless substance. Substance like pollens of the flowers, spore of fungi, house dust, eggs, fish, wheat or nickel, chromium and penicillin are harmless to all people, except those who are allergic to them. Pollens, fungal spores and house dust can cause recurrent bouts of sneezing or asthma, foods like eggs, fish, and wheat can cause rashes, cramps in the abdomen and diarrhea, nickel and chromium can cause reaction in the skin and penicillin can cause anaphylactic reaction in which there is sudden collapse of the person allergic to it.

2) The substance that causes reaction in an allergic person is called allergen or antigen. The substance produced in the body of an allergic person as a result of the introduction of an allergen or antigen is called antibody. When antigen and antibody meet together and react, the process is called antibody reaction.

3) In allergic reactions, substances like histamine, serotonin and many others are released. These are the substances which cause the manifestation of allergy like spasm of the muscles of the lung airways in asthma or exudation of fluid from the nasal mucous membrane in cases of seasonal sneezing or irritation, swelling and redness of the skin in the case of urticaria.

4) Drugs in the group of antihistamines work by acting against and destroying histamine that is produced in allergic reactions.

5) The anaphylaxis allergic reaction is a particular type of severe allergic reaction, which can be life threatening since the lungs may be so badly affected that asphyxiation occurs. Immediate medical attention is essential. Anaphylactic shock can occur as a response to certain drugs such as aspirin, penicillin and some foods but fortunately it is rare.
6) Allergy is inherited also but what are inherited are allergy and not a particular manifestation of allergy. For example a parent may have asthma and his son may have eczema and another a tendency to get sneezing, similarly a person may have eczema in childhood, develop sneezing when he grows up and then may have asthma instead of these manifestations or over and above them.

Treatment of allergy: there is as such no permanent cure for allergy. The best way to get rid of allergic reactions is to find out what one is allergic to and then to avoid contact with it. However if one increases his resistance power and immunity of his body, he can face this problem with much ease and less suffering.