You have probably experienced the upper respiratory or skin symptoms of an allergic reaction at some point in your life. In fact, an estimated 1 in 3 people suffer from allergies. Sometimes, your allergies can be so frequent and draining that you require allergy shots to help you get through your day. Although everything from food to insect bites can stimulate an allergic reaction, one of the most common causes of allergies are airborne particles.
First, it is important to understand why allergies occur. Essentially, an allergic reaction is solely the result of your immune system’s overreaction to a common, non-harmful item. The immune system is “plastic,” or easily adaptable. As you encounter pathogens, your immune system develops antibodies to recognize and attack these invaders. Sometimes, though, these antibodies can be targeted to regular things in your environment, such as dust. Then, every time you encounter dust, your antibodies attack.
When your immune system believes it is under attack, it releases many chemicals such as histamine into your body. Normally, these chemicals help you fight a true invader. However, if your body is not actually under attack, the histamine can cause the painful, irritating symptoms of an allergic reaction. Common airborne particles that can be mistaken for invaders include:
-Dust mites -Animal dander -Mold spores -Pollen -Air pollution
As your immune system overreacts to one of these substances, you can suffer from a debilitating allergic reaction. Normally, airborne allergens affect your upper respiratory system as this is where you are first exposed to the particles. You can develop symptoms such as:
-Runny nose -Red, itchy eyes -Watery eyes -Congestion -Sneezing -Scratchy throat -Itchy nose
Allergies can make you feel miserable. If your symptoms are frequent and severe, you may want to take allergy shots in order to help reduce your immune system’s response to airborne allergens. However, it can be difficult and costly to seek this medical care every two to four weeks. Thankfully, though, you can find a health insurance plan that fits your needs. To find the right health insurance plan for your needs, contact a California health insurance agent from Catherine Michaels Insurance Services today.
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In this brief article, we will define an allergy symptom and discuss some specific systems and what they mean to you as an allergy sufferer. An allergy symptom is any symptom associated with allergies such as a running nose, itchy eyes, watery eyes, sneezing, itchy skin, and more. We will go into some detail about where a symptom comes from and why they appear as well as a brief discussion about how to cure those symptoms if time permits.
What are some of the symptoms?
Some of the most common allergy symptoms occur for the seasonal allergies such as hay fever and include the itchy watery eyes, runny nose, and sneezing aspects of allergenic symptoms. Other cases of allergies feature more serious symptoms that can be more harmful and troublesome such as absentmindedness, dizziness, trouble swallowing, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, skin rashes, vertigo, vomiting, and other serious cases of health issues that may spring from how the body deals with the allergen itself.
Airborne allergies are, however, the most common form of allergies and tend to feature the most common form of an allergy symptom as well. Most of these symptoms are related to the sinuses as the hay fever and other allergies like hay fever tend to affect those systems of the body. Sneezing, a clogged and runny nose, itchiness in the eyes and throat, coughing, postnasal drip, and swollen eyes (a symptom called “conjunctivitis”) are all parts of the airborne allergy symptom repertoire.
Why do these symptoms occur?
Most times, the allergic reaction is coupled with a portion of the allergen. In other words, if the allergen is known for entering the lungs it will likely attack portions of the body related to the lungs and to breathing. An airborne allergy, thus, will likely attach itself to the breathing apparatus and my cause coughing or the nose to run because of the way it affects the system directly. There are other reasons for this that scientists studying allergy immunology are aware of, but the basics of most allergies are that they are “system attackers” in general.
How are the symptoms cured?
An allergy symptom can be cured in a number of ways depending on the actual system it affects and how drastically the body is affected. Many people can simply take, for example, an antihistamine for a hay fever type allergy and go about their day while others simply will not respond to the antihistamine. It is essentially a matter of the biological makeup of the allergy sufferer in terms of how they react to certain medications and how much medication is needed to cure the allergy symptom.