UAE / Intl. 24h Call Center
971-4 2708800
UAE / Intl. 24h Call Center
971-4 2708800
How to protect yourself
In twenty years ago, allergies have exploded. However, allergy remains a poorly understood disease.
So how and why does one become allergic? And how to protect ourselves?
Where Do Allergies Come From?
What is an allergy?
Allergy, also known as hypersensitivity, is an abnormal and excessive reaction of our immune system resulting from contact of our bodies with a foreign substance (antigens). As such, these substances do not pose a threat, unlike bacteria or viruses. But our bodies consider them as enemies. From being antigens, they become allergens. Officially, we currently list over 400 different origins: bee venom, pollen, chemicals, dust mites, etc...
Why and how does one become allergic?
Allergic diseases result from immune dysfunction, that is to say, our ability to make antibodies.
To develop an allergy, we must be predisposed. This predisposition is often hereditary and genetically determined (we talk then about “atopic " ).
Atopic eczema is the most common form of hereditary allergy along with asthma, hay fever, hives, hay fever (sensitivity to pollen grains), some rhinitis and conjunctivitis.
But the environment also plays an important role in the appearance of allergies.
The Main Allergens
Allergens are substances responsible for the allergic reaction.
They are generally classified into several categories:
Food Allergens
Over the past fifteen years, their surge is impressive. From anecdotal decade ago, food allergy has become a routine in allergists’ consultation.
It mainly contains five food groups:
1. The " latex" group (bananas , kiwis , avocados ... )
2. The " nuts " group (almonds, hazelnuts , pecans ... )
3. Umbelliferous plants (dill , celery, chervil, fennel ... )
4. Rosacea (strawberries, apricots, cherries, apples ... )
5. Legumes (peanuts, soy beans, peas ...).
Not to mention, especially with children, food of animal origin food (cow's milk, eggs…)
Airborne Allergens
Very common in the environment, they are the most difficult to remove: serious mites invisible to the naked eye but can be found everywhere in our carpets, our curtains and our bedding, pets, pollen, mold...
Contact Allergens
They are essentially contained in the various chemicals that surround us (perfumes, preservatives, plant extracts).
The main allergic diseases called "contact diseases" are related to skin: Eczema and Urticaria. But other forms are studied and seem logical: conjunctivitis, rhinitis, asthma...
Insect venoms and drugs are also considered allergens.
The hardest part is to define the cause of your allergy. Once it is known, you know what to hold and what to initially avoid as much as possible.
A Two-Step Mechanism
The first contact with an allergen.
After the first contact with an allergen, the manufacture of antibodies responsible for allergic begins, without your knowledge.
Imagine that you at a friend’s place. You cuddle their cat, not knowing that by doing so, you shake the allergens present in the saliva and thus on its pile. When the allergen enters your airways, it is identified as an enemy by some of your cells. At this point, your body is "sensitized" to the cat allergen and ready to respond violently to any new intrusion...
The allergic reaction
After an undetermined time, these silent antibodies will become reagents: we are talking about the allergic attack or reaction. Several months later, you return to your friends place, and their cat, which recognizes you, just gently rub against your legs. The allergen reappears and triggers the allergy, which is manifested as asthma, rhinitis, urticarial, edema or conjunctivitis.
A person may be more sensitive to allergens: which is known as "multiple allergic syndrome".
How to Protect Yourself?
To fight against allergies, you must limit the spread of allergens in your environment.
A few simple steps will help you to do so.
Reduce moisture
It promotes the development of mites and moldiness.
Do not store humid cloth (dry it outside or in the machine), limit the plants in your home…
Ventilate
Ventilate every day all parts of your home.
This allows air circulation and limits indoor pollution, allergens and moisture.
Temper
Keep your home at a maximum temperature of 19 ° - 20 °.
Always avoid the development of mites and moldiness.
Change and wash your bedding regularly
Your sheets should be washed every week at 60 °.
The use of anti-mite covers medically validated is also recommended.
Use anti-dust mite insecticides
Aerosols, powders or liquids, it must then be vacuumed thoroughly, because their waste is allergenic.
Avoid the presence of animals
Especially in the rooms.
If this is not possible, humidify the peeling of your pet regularly to limit the spread of allergens.
Vacuum your floors often
This is fundamental and very effective. House dust contains all domestic allergens.
Use a vacuum cleaner instead of a broom that helps dust spread.
When Consultation is a Must?
If your child or yourself are prone to allergies, be aware that depending on your age, the disease will manifest through different symptoms, and that over time, your allergic sensitization will increase.
Evolution of the disease over the life
The infant carrier of a proven allergic background (or atopic background), will develop initially eczema often caused by a food allergy.
Growing up, he will gradually find that his food allergies are disappearing without it being systematic. Then respiratory manifestations will appear: more often wheezy bronchitis and ENT symptoms (rhinitis, otitis, pharyngitis, bronchiolitis...). He is the considered sensitive to allergens in his environment.
During the rest of life, the symptoms become more "classic": rhinitis, rhino conjunctivitis, asthma, at the same time a sensitization to new allergens will appear (dust, drugs, animal pile, pollen, venom...). This is why it is recommended to take action as soon as possible.
Some symptoms that should alert you
Urticaria, eczema, facial edema, lips edema, sneezing, conjunctivitis, breathing difficulties, discomfort…
Allergies can take many different aspects, some of which may go unnoticed, such as constipation, behavioral disorders with children, irritability, insomnia and migraines.
Do not overlook these symptoms: the more you are late to handle your allergy will, the more inflammatory mechanisms will be installed, the more it will be difficult to halt this allergy.
The search for an allergy is a real police investigation that begins with a visit to the allergist.
The First Visit to the Allergist
During your first consultation, the allergist will try to determine if there is, in your daily life and your personal history, allergic factors...
Prepare the appointment
To prepare for this appointment, ask yourself first about your lifestyle and the frequency of your symptoms.
- What is your environment? The city, the country? A lake, a forest?
- Is your home humid, prone to moldiness?
- Is your bedding new or old?
- Have you had pets in the past five years?
- Are you exposed in your work to potentially allergenic substances?
- Have you noticed a link between your symptoms and a particular situation at night, spring time, during a visit to your aunt and her cat, the sun, the rain, the consumption of such food...?
- How often are you sick in winter?
- Consult frequently an ENT, a dermatologist?
- If it is the case of your child, does he often visit the pediatrician?
Finally, ask your parents to check for allergy cases among your ancestors.
The different diagnostic methods
If there is a presumption, then your doctor will test you on certain allergens among the 400 officially counted.
For this purpose, he applies several types of tests.
In all cases (Prick tests, patches or IDR, "intradermo reactions") your skin is placed in contact with the suspected product. Inflammation or a local reaction will be significant.
For further consideration, he may prescribe blood tests to verify the presence of immunoglobulin E ( IgE ) in your blood specific to the suspected allergen.
Finally, if he finds that you suffer from breathing difficulties characteristic of asthma, he may carry out a functional exploration of your respiratory system (or FER).
Why allergies are growing?
Over the last twenty years, the number of cases of allergies has dramatically increased.
Three main reasons are involved...
1. Increased pollution in all major cities, which contributes the most in the disruption of our immune system. Small dusts particles from cars are so light that instead of forming sediment and are washed by rain; they remain suspended in the air and enter our respiratory system.
2. The change of plant pollen. It contains allergens that, once loaded in particles, they become stronger and more aggressive.
3. Improving our hygiene is paradoxically responsible as well. Industrialization, the advent of antibiotics and the sanitizing of our lifestyles have reduced infectious diseases as a whole. But all this, at the same time, destroys the "good" bacteria and parasites in the body. However, our immune system needs to be trained. From childhood, it must be confronted with germs.
A Special Case: Asthma
Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the small airways which is accompanied or not by attacks. It is still often undiagnosed and poorly treated.
Several studies have established a strong link between asthma and allergic rhinitis, leading to the assumption that they are the continuation of the same disease.
Treat asthma, is to take into account in place the inflammation already present but also monitor the triggers:
It is to know that the more asthma is treated early, the less it potential for future development will be significant and the easier will be to control it.
A doctor may prescribe medications in case of an attack to dilate the bronchus, but also a thorough treatment to prevent these attacks. It is essential to carefully follow the advice of your physician.
You can live normally with asthma, provided that you know the disease and the factors triggering attacks, to learn to manage them.
Living with an Allergy
The number of allergies has doubled in twenty years. Allergy is ranked fourth among the world's diseases, according to WHO.
Fortunately, there are ways to relieve you, occasionally or chronically during an attack.
Drugs
They are part of your treatment, one way to improve your life quality and avoid the adverse effects of allergic diseases.
The drug used during an allergic reaction help to:
Adrenalin is used in emergency cases, especially anaphylactic shock.
It speeds up the heart and helps blood vessels to contract; thereby restoring blood pressure which would have dropped with the allergic reaction.
If you are at risk, (such as those allergic to wasp bites) always have a syringe with you.
Immunotherapy or desensitization
It is, until present date, the only known way to regress allergy.
Its principle is similar to that of the vaccine. Doses of allergens are frequently administered to your body, in insufficient quantity to trigger an allergic reaction.
Over time, your body will get used to the allergen and will consider it less as an enemy against which he must fight.
However, immunotherapy is ineffective for food allergies.
It is also to know that desensitization is long and tedious, and it cannot be performed on children less than 7 years old.
The Explosion of Food Allergies in Children
They have doubled in recent years and pediatricians now recommend delaying the diversification of feeding babies.
We denounce at first, the egg, the first allergen (34% of cases), followed by peanut (25%), milk (8%) and fish (5%).
How to avoid them?
It is advisable for women to breastfeed their babies for the first six months, ensuring that he does not consume highly allergenic foods during the first two or three years of his life.
How to live with?
The best way not to have a food allergy, once identified, is simply to avoid food responsible for this allergy, in all its forms, which is sometimes difficult.
Peanuts, for example, are found in many foods, sometimes in small quantities, and even in some medications. In addition, the social and academic life of the allergic child is still a problem. Parents must manage all class trips, lunches in the canteen, birthday parties, etc...
This is why it is essential to inform the school nurse and always have with you or with adults in charge of your child, a kit containing:
Can we get rid of?
Often food allergies cease spontaneously with time, especially if they have manifested before the age of three years. This is especially true for foods of animal origin. However, some allergies, on nuts or fish for example, are likely to persist into adulthood.
When allergies provoked strong reactions, reintroduction of food allergens (egg, for example) will be gradually few years later, under medical supervision.
Allergies: Living with an Animal
No luck: you just found out that you are allergic to Fido, your beloved dog.
So, is it still possible to live with your four-legged friend? Under what conditions?
Pets pile may be responsible for allergic reactions affecting the nose (rhinitis), the bronchus (asthma) or the skin (eczema).
The allergy may appear later on (6 months to 4 years after his arrival at home) and persist two years after his departure!
In the animals chart that generate the most allergies, the dog is at the top, then the cat and the horse followed by the rabbit, guinea pig, hamster and goat, and, more rarely, mutton, monkey, pig and cattle.
How allergens are transmitted?
They are mainly found in the saliva, urine, sweat and your pet dander, and are transmitted by its coat. You can get infected by direct contact (cuddles) or indirect contact (pile on your clothes, pillows...).
Living with allergy
If you are allergic, ideally, the first step is to stay away from your pet.
If you can, try to respect the following rules:
