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allergy is a reaction of the body to an irritating substance.
The term allergy means "strange or altered reaction."
It refers to a condition when the body is hyper or overly
sensitive to various substances so that the tissues respond
in an abnormal way. Many of these abnormal reactions are
expressed in the skin and mucous membranes but they are
affected by changes throughout the body.
Allergies
are puzzling diseases even to our modern medicine. These
diseases can skip from the nose in hay fever, to the skin
in hives and eczema, to the brain in migraine headaches,
and to the respiratory system in asthma. This makes it
difficult to explain the underlying causes. Perhaps the
most puzzling part is that one person can be allergic
to a substance and yet another is not.
There are two types of allergy, the atopic and the non
atopic. The atopic is the hereditary type which can run
in families and can manifest itself in digestive disturbances
and food allergies. It can also appear in skin allergies
such as hives or eczema, in nasal allergies of hay fever
and brain allergies of migraine headache. The non atopic
or acquired allergies are represented by allergies to
serum or vaccine, to drugs such as aspirin, to chemicals
such as antibiotics, to contact such as hair, pollen,
and cosmetics, to infectious diseases such as those caused
by bacteria and worms, and to physical conditions such
as exposure to heat and cold.
Depending
on the part of the body affected, the symptoms of allergy
can vary. So often the symptoms of allergy are confused
with symptoms of other disorders. Sometimes the skin will
become red or break out with eruptions or a rash. A person
may do a great deal of wheezing, or sneezing or his nose
may clog. Sometimes his breathing can be difficult or
the nose and eyes can itch. The mucous membranes of the
eyes, throat and nose can become inflamed and give off
a watery discharge. Sometimes there can be digestive upsets,
loss of taste, hearing, smell or headaches. The symptoms
can be weak or strong depending on the day, the weather
conditions in the area, the seasons or even the conditions
under which he lives.
Sometimes
a small amount of a protein substance (the allergen),
such as the pollen from ragweed, passes through the mucous
membrane of your nose into the blood and acts as an antigen.
This will cause antibodies to be produced by your body
cells against the antigen, thus you are sensitized to
that particular allergen.
Sometimes a doctor cannot easily diagnose a certain allergy.
In a number of cases for example as in a skin rash, it
has no relation to an allergy. When you go to a doctor
be sure to have information that will be of help to him,
such as: when was the offset of the allergy, where did
the attack occur, how frequent, time of year, or what
had you eaten before the attack. He will ask you about
your home, mattress, rugs, pillows, etc. You might think
he is asking unnecessary questions but all of the information
he gathers will help him in his quest for the reason for
the allergy. He will also use a skin patch or scratch
test in which extracts of suspected allergens are applied
to the skin. If he gets a positive reaction to an allergen
by a reddened area or a blister then he has determined
the cause of the allergy. This could require as many as
thirty different skin tests.
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