Got Tissues?
...dlydoo. It is the allergen which first stimulates the antibodies. Then the allergens and antibodies become partners in crime who act to release substances from cells into body fluids and blood. These substances are called H-substances, which can cause allergic reactions due to its chief substance being Histamine. Due to the location of the tissue and their response to the H-substances, it causes a specific allergy disease. The histamine then makes capillaries enlarge, smooth muscles to tighten, and mucus to secrete; therefore, you get the horrible running nose. Whoops...wrong running nose. Now that you know all the horrible things that can happen if you have allergies, lets cough and wheeze into who gets them. About 50 million people in the United States have allergies. This approximates to one in every five people being allergic to something. Now don’t get me wrong, not only do humans get allergies, your dog or cat can get them too! Anyone can get allergies, but children who are exposed to cigarette smoke are even more likely to develop allergies in the future. With all that sneezing and coughing, you’d think that allergies are contagious, but they aren’t. They tend to run in the family. If one of your parents has allergies, you have a 20 to 50 percent chance of getting allergies. On the other hand, if neither of them has allergies, lucky you!, your chances of getting allergies drops to between 5 to 15 percent. Unfortunately, the allergy rates are on the rise. Yes that’s correct...in our perfectly civilized world, allergies are on the rise and are coming to dominate over us. In fact, it is due to our being civilized and locked indoors that makes us more vulnerable to allergies. When compared to less developed countries where more time is spent outdoors, the rates of allergies has been staying relatively the same as opposed to the rising rates in the United States. What can I say? Better travel on and outside! While we step on outdoors, let’s itch our eyes and look at all the different hazardous allergies. Perhaps you’ve been wondering exactly how many different types of allergies are out there floating around dangerously...waiting for their next victim. Well let me tell you...they are innumerable. That’s right, there are so many different types of allergies that a new one may pop up on the other side of the earth at this second *snap*. The thing is, 20% of the US population is affected by this 6th leading cause of chronic disease. What may seem totally harmless to one person may be fatal to another. Don’t get congested on this fact too much, but guess what? It is all due to the overreaction of our bodies. Our bodies react to essentially harmless substances that can be inhaled, ingested, contacted, or injected. Among those that can be inhaled are pollens, molds, fungi, dust mites, and animal dander. Food and drugs are ingested; plants, cosmetics, jewlery, and latex products can be contacted; and drugs and insects can be injected. It may be bad enough to have one allergy, but imagine if you were allergic to one inhalable, one ingestable, one contactable and one injectable. How horrible your life would be! Of course you wouldn’t want to keep sneezing, coughing, and looking like your crying for the rest of your life. So grab your tissues and let’s honk our way into the treatment and the escape from the evil allergies. "Many years ago, people thought the cure for allergies was to move to the southwest, where there was no ragweed pollen, no freshly cut grasses, no pollen-producing trees, and no mold. In the desert, in places like Tucson, Arizona, there was just clear air, cactus, and sunshine. No more sneezing, no more ...