ALLERGY IDENTIFYING
Sunday, March 29th, 2009Most people who display symptoms of the classic allergic diseases (i.e. asthma, eczema, hay fever, urticaria, perennial rhinitis and anaphylactic shock) show raised levels of IgE in laboratory tests. (>DETECTING YOUR ALLERGIES for further details of these tests.) However, this is not true of everybody who suffers from these diseases. Generally speaking, if there is an identifiable trigger (such as pollen, dust mites or animal fur), and the patients display the classic symptoms of allergy, their illness will be diagnosed as allergy even if the tests are negative. Conversely, some people have a positive result to tests for allergens and raised IgE levels but do not actually react and show symptoms.
It is not known why the body’s normal defence mechanism goes wrong in this way, although it is known that the tendency for it to happen runs in families and can be inherited. This inherited tendency is known as ‘atopy’. This means that if you or your partner suffer from allergies, your children are more likely to suffer from allergies, too, although they may well escape totally. If they do inherit the tendency, however, they will not necessarily inherit your precise symptoms or react to the same specific allergens. For example, you might be allergic to cat fur and get asthma, but they might get perennial rhinitis and be allergic to dust mites. This suggests that the fault in the immune system lies in the controlling or recognising mechanisms.
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