In severe cases, it can cause low blood pressure, breathing trouble, asthma attacks and even death. There is no cure for allergies. You can manage allergies with prevention and treatment. More Americans than ever say they manage allergies. Types of indoor and outdoor allergies include sinus swelling, seasonal and returning allergies, hay fever and nasal allergies. Many people with allergies often have more than one type of allergy. Skin allergies include skin inflammation, eczema, hives, chronic hives and contact allergies.
Plants like poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac are the most common skin allergy triggers. But skin contact with cockroaches and dust mites, certain foods or latex may also cause skin allergy symptoms.
Eight foods cause most food allergy reactions. They are milk, soy, eggs, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish. Learn about allergic skin reactions and what causes them. Dust Allergies. Insect Sting Allergies. Pet Allergies. Eye Allergy. Learn about eye allergies, a condition that affects millions of Americans. Drug Allergies. Hay Fever. Cockroach Allergy. Pollen Allergies. Latex Allergy. Mold Allergies. Ragweed Allergy. Seasonal Allergies. Sinus Infection. Sinus infection is a major health problem.
Your allergist may order some tests such as blood or skin tests to further evaluate your allergies. As many as 50 million adults may get reactions to allergens as well. While more adults have allergies in the United States than children, is there an age group that has it worse?
Research that appeared in a article at MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Massachusetts suggests that adults may be the most at risk for intense, serious symptoms. Adult behaviors such as taking certain medications like ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, and NSAIDs, even aspirin and drinking alcohol may increase risk for severe anaphylaxis. Exercise and having asthma can also increase reaction severity.
Of course, young children who cannot communicate symptoms can also have severe reactions which go unnoticed and progress to dangerous levels. A severe allergic reaction, which can be triggered by foods or venom insect stings , is called anaphylaxis. This is a life-threatening emergency condition in which the patient goes into shock, cannot breathe, and may have vomiting, nausea, and skin rashes.
Anaphylaxis can occur instantaneously or sometimes minutes after eating an allergen or being stung. Epinephrine can control cases of anaphylaxis that are caught immediately. The longer the patient goes without treatment, the greater the likelihood that death can occur. For this reason patients with a history of severe anaphylaxis are encouraged to always have an in date epinephrine injector available.
In fact, food comprised nearly 50 percent of these allergies! Which foods triggered the most allergies? Peanuts, shellfish, and tree nuts. The study discovered that Caucasian people were less likely to have peanut and shellfish allergies compared to Hispanic, Asian, and black people of adult age 18 years old or more.
While, back in , the rate of tree nut allergies among adults was only 0. As of , when the study was published, that rate was now 1. In addition, in , only 2. Today, that number has seen a percent spike, as 3. That said, they had fewer instances of shellfish allergies specifically. Why does this happen? The verdict is still out. Medical and scientific researchers alike are still working on figuring out why adults have a higher likelihood of getting a shellfish allergy compared to children.
One purported reason could be that the allergy is always present, just sitting dormant, like we mentioned above. Unfortunately, you cannot prevent the manifestation of adult-onset allergies.
So, when a person with a food allergy eats that particular food or someone who's allergic to dust mites is exposed to them, they will have an allergic reaction. The tendency to develop allergies is often hereditary, which means it can be passed down through genes from parents to their kids. But just because you, your partner, or one of your children might have allergies doesn't mean that all of your kids will definitely get them. And someone usually doesn't inherit a particular allergy, just the likelihood of having allergies.
Some kids have allergies even if no family member is allergic, and those who are allergic to one thing are likely to be allergic to others. Eight foods account for most of those: cow's milk, eggs, fish and shellfish, peanuts and tree nuts, soy, and wheat. Some kids also have what are called cross-reactions. For example, kids who are allergic to birch pollen might have symptoms when they eat an apple because that apple is made up of a protein similar to one in the pollen.
And for reasons that aren't clear, people with a latex allergy found in latex gloves and some kinds of hospital equipment are more likely to be allergic to foods like kiwi, chestnuts, avocados, and bananas. The type and severity of allergy symptoms vary from allergy to allergy and person to person.
Allergies may show up as itchy eyes, sneezing, a stuffy nose, throat tightness, trouble breathing, vomiting, and even fainting or passing out. Kids with severe allergies such as those to food, medicine, or insect venom can be at risk for a sudden, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis.
Anaphylaxis can happen just seconds after being exposed to an allergen or not until a few hours later if the reaction is from a food. So doctors will want anyone diagnosed with a life-threatening allergy to carry an epinephrine auto-injector in case of an emergency. Epinephrine works quickly against serious allergy symptoms; for example, it reduces swelling and raises low blood pressure. Airborne allergens can cause something known as allergic rhinitis , which usually develops by 10 years of age, reaches its peak in the teens or early twenties, and often disappears between the ages of 40 and Dark circles that sometimes show up around the eyes are called allergic "shiners.
Allergic reactions can vary. Sometimes, a person can have a mild reaction that affects only one body system, like hives on the skin. Other times, the reaction can be more serious and involve more than one part of the body. A mild reaction in the past does not mean that future reactions will be mild. Some allergies are fairly easy to identify but others are less obvious because they can be similar to other conditions.
If your child has cold-like symptoms lasting longer than a week or two or develops a "cold" at the same time every year, talk with your doctor, who might diagnose an allergy and prescribe medicines, or may refer you to an allergist a doctor who is an expert in the treatment of allergies for allergy tests.
To find the cause of an allergy, allergists usually do skin tests for the most common environmental and food allergens. A skin test can work in one of two ways:. After about 15 minutes, if a lump surrounded by a reddish area like a mosquito bite appears at the site, the test is positive. Blood tests may be done instead for kids with skin conditions, those who are on certain medicines, or those who are very sensitive to a particular allergen. Even if testing shows an allergy, a child also must have symptoms to be diagnosed with an allergy.
For example, a toddler who has a positive test for dust mites and sneezes a lot while playing on the floor would be considered allergic to dust mites.
There's no cure for allergies, but symptoms can be managed. The best way to cope with them is to avoid the allergens. That means that parents must educate their kids early and often, not only about the allergy itself, but also about the reactions they can have if they consume or come into contact with the allergen.
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