What are Allergies?
An allergy is a reaction by your immune system against usually harmless (allergenic) substances. A person without allergies would have no reaction to such substances, but when a person who is allergic encounters the allergen, the body reacts by releasing chemicals which cause allergy symptoms.

How do Allergies Start?
An allergic person can create allergic antibodies against a variety of allergens, including pollens, molds, animal danders, dust mites, foods, venoms and medications. This occurs through sensitization, where a person’s immune system is exposed to enough of the allergen to make the body produce allergic antibodies to that substance.

With later exposures, that same allergen binds to its corresponding antibodies on allergic cells, and the body reacts with symptoms of allergies. Allergic symptoms can vary with the type of allergen and medium of exposure (airborne pollen exposure may cause different symptoms than eating a food to which you are allergic).

When and Why do People Develop Allergies?
It is still not known why some people develop allergies and some don’t. Allergies appear to be hereditary, and family members may share allergies to specific foods or medications. The allergic response that was once meant to protect the body against parasitic infections, now seems to be an abnormal response to non-infectious factors. Although, allergies can occur at any time during our lives, they occur most frequently in children and young adults. The appropriate allergy remedy we choose will of course be dependent upon the many factors such as age, nature of the allergy, general health, weight, etc.

How Did You Develop Allergies?

Share your experience. Did you develop it early during your youth? later in life? What do you think might have cause it?

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Tags: , allergen, allergenic, allergy, antibodies, children, dander, dust, foods, immune, infections, medications, mites, mold, parasitic, pollen, reaction, symptoms, system, venom

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 11:08 am and is filed under What Are Allergies?. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.