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Home Remedies & Natural Remedies by Ailment

Allergies

Allergies

A food allergy is an immune system response to a food that the body mistakenly believes is harmful.

Although an individual could be allergic to any food such as fruits vegetables and meats there are eight foods that account for 90% of all food-allergic reactions. These are: milk egg peanut tree nut (walnut cashew etc.) fish shellfish soy and wheat.

Anaphylaxis is a sudden severe potentially fatal systemic allergic reaction that can involve various areas of the body .

An allergen is simply the name given to any substance which can trigger an allergy. There are many thousands of different allergens from the pollen of the birch tree to egg proteins. In fact almost any chemical can provoke an allergic reaction in someone who's very sensitive.

• Common allergens

• House dust mites (well actually their excreta).

• Tree and grass pollen.

• Food proteins especially eggs and peanuts.

• Cat and dog dander - this is the fluff and scales which they shed. In fact the chemical which causes the allergic reaction is a protein that comes from the animals' saliva but which coats the animals' skin and fur as they groom themselves.

Asthma and Allergies

Allergy Asthma & Immunology Online is a professional association of 4 900 allergists/immunologists and an information and news service for patients parents of patients members the news media and purchasers of health care programs. Allergic Asthma UK is the charity dedicated to improving the health and well-being of the 5.2 million people in the UK whose lives are affected by allergic asthma.  Asthma is a common condition which affects one in ten children and one in twenty adults. Although asthma usually begins in childhood and half of those affected will outgrow it by adolescence it can also occur at any age. There often an allergic background and a tendency for asthma to run in families as do related conditions such as eczema and hayfever. Adult onset asthma usually doesn't have an allergic basis but may be associated with aspirin sensitivity.

As amazing as the immune system is it sometimes makes mistakes. Allergies are the result of a hypersensitive immune system. The allergic immune system misidentifies an otherwise innocuous substance as harmful and then attacks the substance with a ferocity far greater than required. The problems this attack can cause range from mildly inconvenient and uncomfortable to the total failure of the organism the immune system is supposed to be protecting.

Allergy Resources

The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network  Non-profit organization dedicated to bringing about a clearer understanding of the issues surrounding food allergies and providing helpful resources.

BBC Health - Allergies A guide to allergies. A number of factors about allergies seem to be inter-linked in the web of circumstances that define whether we become allergic

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Allergies