Allergy: A damaging immune response by the body to a substance, especially a particular food, pollen, fur, or dust, to which it has become hypersensitive.
What causes a Food Allergy?
The job of the body’s immune system is to identify & destroy germs such as bacteria or viruses that make you sick. A food allergy happens when your immune system overreacts to a harmless food protein an allergen.
In India the eight most common food allergens are milk, egg, peanut, tree nuts, soya, wheat, fish & shellfish. Family history appears to play a role in whether someone develops a food allergy. If you have other kinds of allergic reactions. Like eczema or fever, you have a greater risk of food allergy. This is also true of asthma.
Food allergies are not the same as food intolerance & food allergy symptoms overlap with symptoms of other medical condition. It is therefore important to have your food allergy confirmed by an appropriate evaluation with an allergist.
Food Allergies are serious:
Food allergy may occur in response to any food and some people are allergic to more than one food. Food allergies may start in childhood or as an adult.
All food allergies have one thing in common: They are potentially serious. Always take food allergies and the people who live with them seriously.
Food allergy reaction can vary unpredictably from mild to severe. Mild food allergy reaction may involve each a few gives or abdominal pain through some food allergy reaction progress to severe anaphylaxis with low blood pressure & loss of consciousness.
Inhalation / Environmental Allergy: Inhaled allergies are the most common type of allergy they are caused when a person breathes in an allergen such as pollen or animal dander
