Guide For Allergy Symptoms

An allergy is a symptom of a malfunction of the immune system in the body causing a person to respond to a certain substance in a hypersensitive way (causing the allergic reactions).

Allergy relief can be offered by different types of medication, avoiding the typical substances or surroundings (or even pets) causing the allergy. Allergy symptoms are wide ranging but the most common sympro9ms are:

• A runny nose and sneezing (due to an inflammatory response after exposure to the allergen, the cause of your allergy).
• Itchy skin or itchy eyes (the body's immune system cannot cope with exposure to the allergen and tries to defend itself against the substance, causing itchy eyes.
• Severely allergic people suffering from for example bee sting or wasp allergies can have serious allergic reactions to stings by these creatures, possibly resulting in a life threatening anaphylactic shock or death when treatment is not applied in time.

Differences between allergy, intolerance and sensitivity

Allergy

Proper allergies are caused by the body's response to a certain, usually harmless, substance.

The immune system tries to fight off the body's oversensitive reaction to the substance and tries to fight it, causing symptoms that are typical for allergies in the process.

Allergy symptoms can usually be treated with allergy medicine. A doctor can prescribe the best allergy treatment for people with serious allergies and most of those people benefit from allergy medications.

Intolerance

Intolerance is an extreme sensitivity to a type of food, substance or drug, but the response to the substance has nothing to do with the body's immune system.

Symptoms can be like those of an allergic reaction but allergy testing will more often than not show that the patient is merely suffering from intolerance.

Intolerance reactions of the body can usually be delayed and this is not the cause of typical allergic reactions.

Sensitivity

More and more people suffer from adverse reactions of the body to the chemicals surrounding us (think of chemicals and pollution in the air, smoke, cleaning products and beauty products, soap and much more products).

People can grow sensitive to these substances and the sensitivity can cause (often fairly mild) allergic symptoms such as itchy skin, headaches or a rash on the skin.

Symptoms Of Allergies

As allergies can cause more symptoms than just a runny nose or an itchy throat and watery eyes, there are many signs to look out for when you suspect that you might be suffering from an allergy.

More often than not allergy patients will also experience a feeling of a raised body temperature doing allergy attacks. Other symptoms are:

Sneezing

Sneezing is caused by irritation of the tissue in the nose, prompted by the defense mechanism of the body during an allergy attack.

The body's immune system is alarmed because a substance that it has developed an intolerance for is on or close to the body. By sneezing the body is trying to get rid of the allergen.

Wheezing

Wheezing, an allergic reaction likened to asthma attacks, can make breathing difficult for a short period of time.

Allergy testing and an investigation into the symptoms of your possible allergy can help to define whether you are dealing with asthma or an allergy.

Sinus pain

A headache with a lot of pain and a sense of pressure behind the forehead and the eyes.

A runny nose

Caused by excessive sneezing and irritated nose.

Itchy or red eyes

Airborne allergens such as dust and pollen come in contact with the eyes, causing an allergic reaction of red, watery and itchy eyes.Allergy relief is available in the form of eye drops containing antihistamines.

Causes of Allergies

There are different causes of allergies and many of those causes stem from biotechnical inventions that we once discovered.

Depending on the cause and fierceness of the allergy, every person needs a personal approach to cure the allergy or to at least find out what sets the allergy symptoms off.

A few causes of common allergies are: 

Genetic manipulation of food

Food does not have to be necessarily manipulated to cause allergic reactions, but it is a fact that certain foods that trigger reactions are also grown and manipulated genetically.

Genetic manipulation is a process to grow food in which for example certain proteins are added to the vegetable to make it more nutritious.

Especially foods like soybeans and peanuts tend to cause allergies.

Environmental Factors

Allergy attacks can be provoked by environmental factors, causes of allergies are for example:

• Dust
• Peanuts
• Pollen

These factors can be easily identified and allergy treatment can be taken if one is sensitive to pollen.

Antibiotic Treatment

Prescription treatment for medical problems with antibiotics is causing more and more problems for people who are prone to allergies and asthma.

The rising number of people suffering from allergies caused by antibiotics is caused by the fact that the balance of bacteria in the body is imbalanced by these treatments.

The immune system could get confused and is not able to define 'real' attacks to the immune system by diseases and responds to for example environmental factors with allergy symptoms.

Diagnosis of Allergies

Allergy testing can be done in two different ways, by doing a skin test or a blood test.

Skin Test

The suspected substance that causes your possible allergy is scratched onto the skin of the armor on the back. The allergist will then check the area to which the substance has been applied for signs of irritation such as redness.

Blood Test

Blood is drawn and tested for the presence of antibodies pointing to allergies. This test is thought to be less sensitive than the skin test, and it takes longer to get the results of this test.

Treatment of Allergies

There is not one cure that can be prescribed to treat allergies, but some patients may benefit from immunotherapy (the cause of the allergy, for example, dust, is introduced to the patient so that the patient's body) gets used to it.

Some examples of allergy relief medication that can help relieve the symptoms:

Conventional Treatment of Allergies

Antihistamines

Antihistamines block the body from recognizing the presence of allergens in or around the body.Itchy and watery eyes can be successfully treated with eye drops contains antihistamines.

Decongestants

Remove nose blocks and allow the patient to breathe freely and stops a person from sneezing.

Bronchodilators

These treatments for allergy symptoms help to relax muscles near the air tubes in the lungs, making it easier to breathe freely. This treatment is used to stop symptoms such as coughing and wheezing.

Dietary Treatment for Allergies

People who suffer from (suspected) food allergies will most probably be put on a so-called elimination diet by their doctor.

Foodstuffs that may cause symptoms of allergies are added and eliminated to the diet to see if the patient is still experiencing symptoms.

Alternative Remedies for Allergies

Acupuncture has proven to offer a fairly successful treatment for people seeking allergy relief. The treatment (in which small needles are applied to specific parts in the body, to regulate energy flow) is mostly recommended for people with seasonal allergies.

Can Allergies Be Prevented?

Allergies cannot be prevented completely, but once you know what allergies you suffer from you can try to avoid situations that will trigger your allergies or that will make symptoms worse.

Allergy relief medication combined with the proper prevention of occurring allergy symptoms will help to make your life as carefree as possible.