Allergy is one of the most common diseases of our time. The concept of allergy is omnipresent, but the causes of its occurrence are not well known.

The body's immune system plays a crucial role in the body's resistance against pathogens. Without an active immune system, the summer flu could lead to death, since the causative agent of the disease - the flu virus could multiply unlimitedly. When foreign substances enter the body, the immune system activates and makes a decision: unknown substances are perceived as dangerous or safe and, accordingly, the body's defenses are activated, or they are ignored. For allergy sufferers, this particular decision-making function does not work.

The body can not distinguish between dangerous and safe substances. The immune system itself is alarming, even if harmless substances, such as pollen, enter the body. The protective system of an allergy sufferer primarily produces the so-called antibodies, which, upon second contact with erroneously hazardous foreign substances, are truly activated. If this second contact occurs, an unnecessary defensive fight begins: the antibodies secrete substances that lead to inflammation and various allergic reactions in the body.

To date, more than twenty thousand substances that can cause an allergic reaction are known.. These so-called allergens are divided into: contact (jewelry, cleaning and detergents), medicinal (penicillin, insulin, sleeping pills), food (milk, fruits, nuts), inhalant allergens (pollen, animal hair, fragrant substances, homemade dust, etc.) and insect poisons, like allergens (wasps, bees, hornets).

Before the doctor diagnoses allergies, he will ask the patient, for example, about complaints, as well as the frequency, place and time of the symptoms. This so-called medical history (medical history) can provide important points of reference or directly lead to a conclusion about allergies. As a rule, to confirm the results of the anamnesis, the doctor additionally conducts a skin test. This test can show results in 15 minutes. Redness, itching and blistering indicate an allergic disease.

The presence of protective bodies that are formed in the body of an allergic person against the substance that caused the allergy can also be established using a blood test. When conducting a provocative analysis, probable allergens in an aerosol state are injected into the nose, inhaled by the patient, or administered as capsules in the mouth. In case of allergic symptoms in the form of sneezing, complaints of shortness of breath or diarrhea, the pathogen is determined.

How to get rid of allergies?

The first place, among therapeutic measures, is the exclusion of interaction with the allergen, in order to avoid its effect on the body. In the event that this is not possible, the doctor suggests conducting immunotherapy, the so-called hypersensitivity.In this case, the body gradually gets used to the allergen, which is regularly injected into the body with a syringe or through a dropper, in a gradually increasing dosage.

In order to reduce the manifestation of symptoms, if necessary, antihistamines can be used in parallel.