Health Promotion

Allergies affect approximately one in four people within the UK at some time in their lives.

An allergy occurs when the body's immune system over-reacts to normally harmless substances. Allergies are triggered by substances in the environment called allergens. Almost anything can be an allergen for someone. The most common are pollen from trees and grass, house dust mites, cats, dogs, insects, milk, eggs and peanuts. The body views these allergens as intruders that will cause damage. Therefore the body produces an antibody to attach the invading material. In addition blood cells release further chemicals. Together, this causes an allergic reaction.

The reaction can cause a range of symptoms. Symptoms include:

• Sneezing
• Sinus pain
• Runny nose
• Itchy eyes/ears
• Wheezing
• Shortness of breath
• Vomiting & diarrhoea
• Coughing
• Rash, hives, swelling

An allergy can irritate nasal passages, aggravate the sense of smell, touch and taste and cause inconvenience, disability and in extreme cases death.

The most common allergies are:

• Hay fever
• Asthma
• Itchy skin rashes
• Food allergies
• Allery to wasp and bee stings

Allergies have become more common over the last 50 years and are now a significant cause of illness, especially in children and young people.

Allergies run in families. Your genetic make-up and your exposure to an allergen are the two main factors in determining whether you will develop an allergic disease. This in point, the rapid increase in allergies can not be attributed to a change in genetic make-up as this would take several generations. Therefore it must be a result of changes in the environment and in lifestyle. Research has suggested that modern-day pollution may be an important factor in the rise in allergic disorders.

Obviously symptoms associated with allergies can be caused by other factors. If you do suspect you have an allergy, you should seek advice from your GP. As a result of the increase in allergies, allergy testing has become increasingly sophisticated.

Once the allergen that causes your symptoms is identified, treatment can be given. It may mean avoiding contact with the allergen as far as this is possible. However, various medications are available that not only relieve the symptoms, but also can be used to prevent them and reduce the ongoing inflammation of tissues that is caused by chronic allergies.

Asthma is defined as an increased sensitivity of the airways. The symptoms of asthma are coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath. The condition is characterised by an inflamation of the lining of the airways of the lung. This inflamation causes the narrowing of the airways and a reduction in the amount of air and rate at which air can be expelled out of the lungs in a given time.

It is not understood why so many people in westernised countries suffer from allergies, compared with people in less affluent rural parts of the world. There is growing evidence to prove that asthma is in general an environmentally induced disease. This suggests that we may be able to prevent asthma by altering our environments.

It is important to identify the allergen that is causing your asthma attack in order to take steps to avoid the irritant whenever possible.

Allergens include:

House dust mite
Pets
Moulds
Chemicals
Air pollution
Viral infections

Removing or avoiding the causes of asthma has been very successful in treating asthma. As in the case of domestic pets such as dogs or cats. Unfortunately, one of the most common triggers of asthma, is allergy to house dust mites. Sufficiently removing mites from the home requires a major change in lifestyle and is expensive.

There are a number of drugs available that can prevent and treat asthma. Your GP will have specific goals in mind when choosing the right treatment for you.