Do you wake up each morning with your nose so stuffed you can hardly breathe? Do you break out in hives every time you eat nuts? Is your skin so sensitive that no matter what cream or soap you use, you develop a rash? If these questions ring a familiar bell, you're not alone. Hardly a day goes by in my private practice that at least one patient doesn't express concern that he or she may be suffering from an allergy. For example, patients often want to know if their headaches, skin rashes, or sinus problems represent an allergy to something they've come in contact with or eaten. Frequently they bring with them a shopping list of what they think may be the cause of their troubles specific germs, foods, cosmetics, medications. Much of the time these concerns are based on misinformation obtained from friends or the media.
Concerns about allergies to Candida, the common intestinal yeast organism best known for causing one form of vaginitis in women, are a good example of this. Because of the bad publicity the organism has received lately, patients with no evidence of Candida infection at all will ask whether their complaints of chronic fatigue, psoriasis, or migraines can be due to over colonization by the organism. In a similar vein, other patients will relate some of all of their symptoms to environmental pollution or food contaminants.
Whatever the realities regarding the role of Candida or environmental pollution in triggering allergic disorders, one thing is sure: Allergies are of no small medical and consumer concern. More people see physicians for the relief of allergy symptoms than for any other single illness. It has been estimated that approximately one-fifth of the population of the Western world suffers with some form of allergy-It is so common, in fact, that almost everyone personally knows someone who suffers from them. In the United States alone, more than $100 million is spent each year for allergy injections. And to the delight of the pharmaceutical industry, allergy sufferers spend nearly $500 million annually on an overwhelming array of over-the-counter remedies in search of relief.
To obtain the kind of care you need and to avoid being misled by advertising claims or bogus therapies, you need to know more about what allergies are, what triggers them, and what you can do about them.
What Is An Allergy?
Simply put, an allergy is an abnormal reaction to one or more substances or environmental conditions that are harmless to most other people. For this reason doctors often refer to allergy attacks as hypersensitivity reactions (that is, an oversensitivity to something). The fact that allergies often run in families suggests that the predisposition to develop them is inherited.
As a rule, allergy attacks do not begin by themselves; they are triggered by exposure to antigens or allergens. These typically are water-soluble proteins capable of penetrating the mucous membranes or skin barrier. Common allergens include tree pollens, weeds, and grasses, house dust, molds, animal dander, insect parts or venom, certain foods and drugs, and paint, perfume, and solvent fumes. (These and other types of allergies, along with the contributory role of environmental conditions heat, cold, humidity, sunlight, and pollution will be discussed later.)
Becoming Allergic to Something
Contrary to a popular misconception, an allergy attack is typically not provoked by the first exposure to a particular allergen. Instead, a person actually becomes sensitized (that is, becomes allergic) to a substance following repeated exposures to it over a period of weeks, months, or even years. In fact, allergy symptoms may not develop until after the tenth, hundredth, or even thousandth exposure. Doctors refer to this interval as the period of sensitization. Once an individual has become sensitized, however, allergy symptoms, in most cases, will develop each time the susceptible person is exposed to the offending allergen. In general, once a person is allergic to something, it takes only a minute or trace amount of the allergen to trigger symptoms.
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