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What Are Allergies?

Your eyes itch, your nose is running, you're sneezing, and you're covered in hives. It's allergy season again, and all you want to do is curl up into a ball of misery.

There has to be something you can do to feel better. After all, doctors seem to have a cure for everything, right? Not for allergies. But there are ways to relieve allergy symptoms or avoid getting the symptoms, even though you can't actually get rid of the allergies themselves.

Allergies are abnormal immune system reactions to things that are typically harmless to most people. When you're allergic to something, your immune system mistakenly believes that this substance is harmful to your body. (Substances that cause allergic reactions, such as certain foods, dust, plant pollen, or medicines, are known as allergens.) In an attempt to protect the body, the immune system produces IgE antibodies to that allergen. Those antibodies then cause certain cells in the body to release chemicals into the bloodstream, one of which is histamine (pronounced: his-tuh-meen).

The histamine then acts on a person's eyes, nose, throat, lungs, skin, or gastrointestinal tract and causes the symptoms of the allergic reaction. Future exposure to that same allergen will trigger this antibody response again. This means that every time you come into contact with that allergen, you'll have an allergic reaction.

Allergic reactions can be mild, like a runny nose, or they can be severe, like difficulty breathing. An asthma attack, for example, is often an allergic reaction to something that is breathed into the lungs in a person who is susceptible.

Some types of allergies produce multiple symptoms, and in rare cases, an allergic reaction can become very severe — this severe reaction is called anaphylaxis (pronounced: ah-nuh-fuh-lak-sis). Some of the signs of anaphylaxis are difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing, swelling of the lips, tongue, and throat or other parts of the body, and dizziness or loss of consciousness. Anaphylaxis usually occurs minutes after exposure to a triggering substance, such as a peanut, but some reactions may be delayed by as long as 4 hours. Luckily, anaphylactic reactions don't occur often, and they can be treated successfully if proper medical procedures are followed.

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Article Compliments of Kids Health