Many medications can help suppress allergic reactions. But no medicines can cure allergies. Thus, allergies last for years and even for a lifetime, causing significant pain and discomfort.
The best way to prevent allergies is to avoid exposure to allergens. But, what allergens? Most people do not precisely know the cause of allergies. Furthermore, they are unsure what is causing allergic reactions, as there are so many possible allergens around.
It is precisely where allergy testing can help. It can help identify the exact cause of allergies. For example, doctors would often use the so-called “skin prick test.” In this test, they would introduce a small amount of various allergens with the help of a prick and then see the local skin reaction. If someone is allergic to a specific thing, it will cause the formation of a more prominent rash. This test can help check allergies to common agents like house dust, mites, pollens, etc. Once the allergy is identified, doctors can also try to cure it with the help of desensitization therapy.
Allergy tests include, but are not limited to:
Allergies occur mainly to proteins and similar large molecules. Allergies do not happen to small inorganic molecules like salts. Thus, allergies are more likely to occur to foods, animals, and so on.
Food Allergens:
- Egg White
- Milk
- Codfish
- Wheat
- Corn
- Sesame Seed
- Peanut
- Soybean
- Hazelnut
- Brazil Nut
- Almond
- Crab
- Shrimp
- Coconut
- Blue Mussel
- Tuna
- Salmon
- Gluten
- Chicken Meat
- Mustard
- Cocoa
- Clam
- Anchovies
- Greer
House Dust Mites
- D.Pteronyssinus
- D.Farinae
- Blomia Tripicalis
Mould
- Penicillium Notatum
- Cladosporium
- Aspergillus Fumigatus
- Candida Albicans
- Alternaria Tenuis
Animal
- Cat
- Dog
- Guinea Pig
- Rat
- Mouse
Insects
- Honey Bee Venom
- Cockroach
What is an allergy, and why is it difficult to cure?
Allergy is also called hypersensitivity, as in the condition, the immune system reacts abnormally or initiates hyper-response to relatively harmless substances like latex or animal dander. Thus, when a person comes in contact with such substances, immune cells start secreting various biologically active substances, causing many changes in the body like increased blood flow, vascular permeability, inflammation, and more.
The body apparently confuses some large organic molecules with something that may be more harmful. Some of these substances may harm the health a bit, but the body needs to get rid of them more subtly. Instead, in those allergic to those substances, the body initiates quite a severe response, a response that is more harmful than the substance itself.
Since allergies are about the immune system’s dysfunction, they are challenging to manage. It is extremely difficult to correct faulty immune responses.
Allergy treatment options
There are two common ways to treat allergies. The most common way is to prescribe medications that counter the effect of various biologically active substances secreted by immune cells in response to allergen exposure like histamine and even cytokines. Thus, doctors often use anti-histamine drugs or, in more severe cases, even corticosteroids.
Drug therapy can provide quick relief from allergies. But the problem with drug therapy is that it does not treat the root cause. It means that those medications only work to provide temporary relief. One feels well as long as one is taking those medications.
However, the new mind of immune or desensitization therapies available at the specialized clinics tries to retrain the immunity. They do this by exposing the body to lower dosages of allergens till the body starts responding normally to those allergens.
