What exactly causes allergies?
Question:
Answers:
Allergic reactions are caused by an abnormal and hypersensitive immune response to a normally benign substance within the environment.
An allergic person's immune system believes allergens to be damaging and so produces a special type of antibody (IgE) to attack the invading material. This leads other blood cells to release further chemicals (including histamine) which together cause the symptoms of an allergic reaction.
On what level do allergies work, molecular or macromolecular?
The answer is both but they are not the same for every person.An person may have lactose intolerance which is not an allergy to milk but rather Lactose intolerance occurs when the body cannot easily digest lactose, the kind of sugar found in milk and dairy products.
A true milk allergy involves an immune response to the IGE protein in milk.
A milk intolerance or a food intolerance is a gastrointestinal sensitivity to a protein found in a food substance and does not provoke an immune response.
Source(s):
fellow allergy sufferer/research
An allergy is sort of an over-reaction by your body to a substance that it would normally deal with considerably more "quitely." Our immune systems are designed to deal with anything it perceives as an invader; this is mostly in response to things like viruses and bacteria, but things like pollen, animal dander, and mold can also be viewed as foreign substances by your immune system. If you're unusually sensitive to one of these substances, then your body's immune system goes into overdrive, and you experience the symptoms of allergies.
When it comes to cats, people are generally sensitive to the saliva, strange as it sounds. It contains a very powerful disinfectant (that's the reason a cat can clean itself as it does), and many people are sensitive to it. It's transferred from the cat's tongue to the hair and skin, and as the skin is shed (a normal process), tiny bits may be inhaled. The reaction to the saliva is what causes the symptoms - not the skin itself, or the cat's hair.
I'm allergic to cats, but I really like them, so I'm willing to take a preventive medication to allow me to be around them; of course, it also helps me with my other allergies like ragweed pollen, mold, and so on. I use Flonase each night, and it's very effective for me.
Your nose
More Questions & Answers...