Allergies

What is allergy?

• Allergy is the most common chronic health problem in the world.
• Our environment, society, life style has been changed a lot in the last few decades. The spreading of industrialization, urbanization has putted bad impact upon our environment.
• The pollution level is increasing day by day at every level in air, water and even in our foods.
• We are living in such an environment which is filled with various pollutants, dusts, pollens, , various bacteria, viruses, some strong smells, strong fumes etc.
• We are eating various types of foods contains different types of proteins. Among them commons are milk protein, whey protein, egg protein etc.
• The water what we drink also contain various types useful as well as harmful substance.
• When all those above things are get inside to our body, our body’s immune system recognize them and differentiate them which are harmful and which harmless for our body and destroy the harmful ones.
• But sometimes many harmless substances act as harmful for some people and their immune system reacts an abnormal reaction or increased sensitivity to certain substances,
• It is because the body’s immune system of allergic people is very hypersensitive to these substances call allergen when comes in contact with them.
• The allergic individual create a special type of antibody call Immunoglobin E(Ige), when comes contact with the environmental substances. The reaction between IgE antibodies and allergen, it release huge amount of substances such as histamine, which produce allergic symptoms in skin, nose, eyes, chest, etc. The allergic reaction can be occurred at any place at anywhere.
• The most common allergens are animal dander, pollens, house dust, house mites, moulds, some drugs, and many food stuffs, especially fish, eggs, milk, and nuts. Bee and wasp stings may cause allergic reactions, with fatal results in rare cases. Additionally, feathers, wood, dyes, cosmetics, and perfumes may act as allergen.

• The Most Common Trigger Factor and symptoms for Allergy:

  The allergic symptoms are developed within a few minutes to hour of being exposed to the things somebody is allergic to.

  The most common Indoor and Outdoor Allergens are:

  • Dust Allergy:

  The dust allergy is the most commonly found allergy in many people. One dust particle contains pet dander, pieces of dead cockroaches, and mold spores, along with dead skin and dust mites. Dust mites are generally found in your old mattress, bedding, pillows, and blankets etc. They prefer to live in warm damp places. They are so tiny creature cannot be seen in naked eyes. Dust mites like to eat dead skin from pets and humans that shed out of your body.

  The most common Symptoms develop after exposed to dust :

  1. 1. • Itching of eyes
        • Redness of eyes with teary eyes
        • Regularly Sneezing
        • Itching stuffy nose
        • Common cold like runny nose
        • Sometimes Difficulty in breathing, coughing, shortness of breath
  • Food allergy:

  Food allergies are most commonly seen in children and babies, but can occur at any age too. Your body’s immune system protects you from the various outside invaders starting from bacteria to any foreign particle. Even any type of protein what you eat in your food sometimes body feel of threaten and do attack them to get those out. Though those food you eat regularly does not give any reaction in past but have the chance of sometimes it react and make you sick. There are many foods which develop allergic reaction in people. The most common are given below. The proteins it contain of these foods sometimes causes the triggering of allergic reaction

  1. 1. • Eggs
        • Milk
        • Peanuts
        • Tree nuts
        • Fish
        • Shellfish
        • Wheat
        • Soy
  • Pollen:

  Pollens are fine yellowish powder like substances that is transported from plant to plant by the wind, by birds or insects or by other animals and come in contact to your nose or nasal passage. This reacts adversely with some people who are allergic to pollens. The pollen allergy is also called hay fever.

  The common symptoms of pollen allergy are:

  1. 1. • itchy with runny nose
        • Recurrent Sneezing
        • Nasal congestion or stuffy nose
        • Congested, itchy, Watery eyes
        • Itchy throat , nose and ears
        • difficulties in breathing, Wheezing and respiratory distress
  • Animal dander:

  Animal dander is nothing but the dead skin cell of animals. Almost all pets, such as kittens, dogs, birds, and rats have animal dander. These are the common trigger factor for various respiratory allergic diseases such as allergic rhinitis, allergic bronchial asthma.

  The common symptoms of animal dander allergy are:

  1. 1. • Frequently Sneezing one after another
        • Itchy of nose, itchy eyes, Itchy ears, watery eyes
        • Watery nasal discharge with irritation feeling inside the nose
        • Nasal Congestion or stuffy Nose
        • Breathing difficulties with tightness feeling of chest
        • Urticaria or hives likes rashes also appear on skin.
  • Various drugs:

  There are numerous medicines or drugs which are reacts negatively or badly in your body and it develops various allergic symptoms. These allergic symptoms develop from this drug reaction. It may differ from person to person. All drugs do not give any reaction but some few drugs which reacts to certain people who are allergic to those drugs in their body

  The most common Drugs are:

  1. 1. • Antibiotics, such as penicillin
        • Aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications, such as ibuprofen
        • Anticonvulsants
        • Monoclonal antibody therapy
        • Chemotherapy

  Common symptoms of a drug allergy:

  1. 1. • Hives like skin rashes
        • Itchy eyes and skin
        • Swelling of the lips, tongue, or face.
        • Wheezing and breathing difficulty
  • Paint:

  The colour paint contains some chemicals which are allergic to some people. The common symptoms occurred in paint allergy:

  1. 1. • Breathing difficulty
        • Wheezing sound
        • Coughing
        • Sneezing
        • Itching rashes on skin
        • Urticaria or hives like symptoms
  • Fumes:

  Fragrances become a part of our daily life. But some people get hypersensitive reaction with some fragrances of Hair spray, soap, body and facial lotion, hair shampoo or conditioner, Face wash, cosmetics, deodorant and barber sprit contain fragrance.

  Common Symptoms of fumes allergy:

  1. 1. • Watery nasal Discharge with itching inside the nose.
        • Itching of eyes , redness of eyes,
        • Coughing and difficulty in breathing
        • Post nasal drip
        • Headache
  • Cold Air

  Many people are very hyper sensitive to cold air or cold weather and shows cold like symptoms during cold winter season, changing climate or season change. The allergic symptoms are develop when they do exposed to the cold air.

  Various allergic symptoms like:

  1. • Sneezing with runny nose
     • Difficulty in breathing with wheezing sound in chest.
     • Coughing
     • Sore throat or tonsillitis
     • Sinusitis

Types Of Allergy

There are major 3 category of allergy-

Respiratory tract and throat allergy – the respiratory tract and throat allergies are-

• Allergic rhinitis:- Allergic rhinitis is an allergic inflammation of the nasal airways. It occurs when an allergen, such as pollen, dust or animal dander is inhaled by an individual with a sensitized immune system. It causes sneezing, itchy and watery eyes, swelling and inflammation of the nasal passages, and an increase in mucus production. Many of the same factors that trigger allergic rhinitis can also trigger an allergic bronchial asthma attack.
• Rhinosinusitis –rhino sinusitis is the inflammation of inner layer of nasal passage and inner lining of sinus cavity result from allergic cause or viral cause. the common cause for developing of rhino sinusitis is allergy i.e. allergic rhinitis. the most common symptoms of rhinosinusitis are blocking of nose, heaviness and severe pain on sinus areas like at the side on root of nose, both side of nose just under the eyes, and on maxilla portion of face. there sometimes more nasal secretion of thin to thick discharges
• Allergic Bronchial Asthma - It is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. It is triggered by various allergens or irritants. In allergic asthma, when the airways come in contact with an allergen, the immune system reacts and releases chemicals. These chemicals cause the muscles around the airways to tighten. Inflammation, swelling, and a buildup of mucus in the airways causes further narrowing.
• Allergic tonsillitis and adenoids - Tonsils are the two round lumps in the back of the throat. Tonsils can be seen clearly in the back of the throat, while the adenoids are located high in the throat behind the nose and the roof of the mouth (soft palate) and are not visible. Those are the lymph glands like other lymph gland. The inflammation of tonsils and adenoids are called tonsillitis and adenoids. the common symptoms occurs in tonsillitis are sore throat, can not swallow any thing because of throat pain, sometimes redness of tonsils, cough , fever etc. The adenoids symptoms are snoring, sleeping disorder, weakness feeling etc.
• Nasal polyp: nasal polyps are non cancerous grape shaped growths found around the nasal mucus membrane especially at the place where the sinus opens to the nasal passage. They result from chronic inflammation due to allergy, asthma, recurring infection or certain immune disorder. The common symptoms are blocked stuffy nose, post nasal drip, runny nose, loss of smell, pain in maxillary portion, etc.

Skin allergy - The skin allergy can be of

• urticaria or hives - Urticaria or hives is a skin reaction of appearance of various sizes smooth, slightly elevated pinkish patches of wheals like attended with severe itching result from allergic reaction. Those are subsided automatically after a few minutes to hour without leaving any scar. Most cases of urticaria are self-limited and of short duration. Chronic urticaria is defined as urticaria with recurrent episodes lasting longer than 6 weeks.
• Atopic dermatitis or Eczema – atopic dermatitis or eczema is one type of inflammation of skin characterize with itchy, redness , rough and cracked skin patches result from allergic cause. they may be wet and oozing of sticky watery fluid from that affected part.

G.I. Tract allergy

• Gastro enteritis – There is abdominal pain, nausea and loose bowel movement generally occur in child and babies.

Treatment for Allergy:

• Before going to the treatment of allergy it is essential to know the basic things how the allergy occur and what is the scope of conventional treatment and homeopathic treatment
• An allergy is the hyper immune reaction of a person to many substances which are though safe for others but harmful to an allergic people.
• Those substances are called allergen or antigen
• there are various types allergens or antigens present in the environment such as dust mites, pollens, various foods, many drugs, cold air, strong smells of various substances like perfumes, petrol, paints.
• Those antigens or allergens when enters inside body our immune cells recognize them and eliminate them out.
• Our immune cells like T cells (T lymphocyte) and B cells (B lymphocytes) play the major role to perform this task.
• In a normal person when those antigen or allergen enter inside the body the immune system eliminate them without reacting anyway, but an allergic person of hypersensitive immune system reacts to those substances vigorously
• A person of hypersensitive immune system, the B cells induces the inflammatory tissue reaction called allergic reaction when comes in contact to those antigens or allergens. The B cells of a sensitized immune system when detect any such foreign protein or antigen produce certain substances called IgE antibody.
• In our body there are some cells called mast cells. Those mast cells contain some granules called histamine and heparin. Around the surface of mast cells numerous receptor are found called FC receptors to which the IgE antibody binds.
• When any allergen invade the body the B cell identifies the invader and produces the IgE antibodies that flows and attach with the FC receptor of mast cell surface.
• The antigen or allergen further binds with those IgE antibodies over mast cell surface. This way of antigen and antibody fixation stimulate the mast cell to releases the histamine content around the tissues.
• Those histamines when comes in contact to the surrounding tissue binds to the histamine receptors (H1 receptor) present over the tissue surface and starts developing allergic reactions.
• The symptoms of sneezing, runny nose, redness and itching of eyes nose are nothing but the outcomes result of histamine and tissue reaction.