Allergy Symptoms Including Runny Nose example essay topic

Allergies are especially unique in the medical field because they differ among patients. An allergy is a specific immunologic reaction to a normally harmless substance, one that does not bother most people. People with allergies are often sensitive to many substances. Common allergens that cause allergic reactions include seasonal, outdoor allergens like tree, grass, and weed pollen, and year-round indoor allergens including dust particles, animal dander, and indoor mold. Most people usually can be cured by various treatments. Many people are curious why they are allergic and others are not.

The answer to this is that allergies are genetic in almost all cases. Scientists and researchers believe that people inherit a tendency to be allergic, although not to any specific allergen. Children are much more likely to develop allergies if their parents have allergies. Interestingly, people with year-round (perennial) allergies commonly develop the problem as adults, and are more likely to be women than men. Symptoms can lessen as you get older, but they rarely completely disappear without treatment. Patients who usually have allergies suffer from many symptoms due to the allergic reaction (s).

Normally, your immune system protects you against invading agents such as bacteria and viruses. Otherwise harmless allergens (allergy-producing substances) cause your body to react as if they were dangerous invaders. In effect, your immune system is responding to a false alarm. Some of the common allergens that disrupt the immune system are animal dander, molds, and dust mites.

When you first come into contact with these allergens, your immune system treats the allergen as an invader and mobilizes an attack. The immune system does this by generating large amounts of a type of antibody (a disease-fighting protein) specific to the particular allergen you " re allergic to. In the case of pollen allergy, the antibody is specific for each type of pollen: one antibody may be produced to react against oak pollen and another against ragweed pollen. This antibody attaches itself to certain cells in your body.

The next time you come into contact with the allergen, the allergen attaches to the antibody like a key fitting into a lock, causing the release of powerful inflammatory chemicals, including histamine. These chemicals move into various parts of your body, such as your respiratory system, to cause allergy symptoms including runny nose, itchy eyes, and sneezing, among others. Patients who suffer from allergies usually have some serious disadvantages. Allergy patients usually have trouble sleeping, breathing, and sometimes even eating or drinking depending on the allergy.

The symptoms are usually are different among patients. Yet, all patients usually face sneezing, runny or clogged nose, coughing, postnasal drip, itching eyes, nose, throat, watering eyes, and red, inflamed eyes. In some serious cases usually a person might suffocate or get hives. During this case it is important that the patient receive immediate, medical attention. Allergies can masquerade as colds and other illnesses and can be hard to pin down without your doctor's help. It's important to be able to recognize the difference between allergy symptoms and the symptoms of other common respiratory tract illnesses.

Many common differences between allergies and the common cold are the duration, color of mucus discharge, and symptoms. Primarily, the duration is the major difference. The duration of the common cold is usually about a week, but an allergy is spontaneous, and it can occur anytime during the year or last year-round. Another unique characteristic of an allergy is that it has a co-relation with asthma sinusitis. Sinusitis is swelling (inflammation) of the nasal sinuses (hollow cavities in the cheekbones located around and behind the nose) that can be caused by viral, bacterial, or fungal infection, or by an allergic reaction.

Primarily, people with allergies develop asthma, or may have asthma before their allergies appear. Allergies are a related cause of asthma in as many as 25% to 35% of patients with asthma, and contribute to its development in about 30% more patients. The symptoms of asthma include coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath due to a narrowing of the airways in the lungs and excess mucus production. Asthma can be disabling and sometimes can be fatal. In the past, patients with allergies have been neglected, Yet, now science and medicine have improved creating various types of treatments and cures.

Some of the major types of treatments are antihistamines, decongestants, corticosteroids, and allergy shots. Antihistamines are usually in the form of pills. They have been the mainstay of treatment for allergic rhinitis symptoms for more than 40 years and are used to relieve sneezing, runny nose, and watery, itchy eyes. Decongestants do not usually completely relieve the symptoms, but they suppress the intensity of the symptoms to some levels.

Decongestants are available in nose-drops or sprays, and in medications taken orally. Decongestants give immediate changes such as reducing nasal stuffiness and easier breathing. Corticosteroids work by inhibiting the body's inflammation process, thereby decreasing nasal congestion and the secretion of nasal mucus. Corticosteroids are applied by using a nasal spray directly in the nose to relieve sneezing, nasal itching, congestion, and runny nose. It may take several days before maximum improvement of nasal symptoms occurs. Allergy shots is basically method that is like training the body to adopt the allergy and be one with it.

Allergy shots are also called immune-therapy and they work by actually injecting the specific allergen that the patient is allergic to in the immune system. The process usually begins with the identification of the allergens and then creating a maintenance dosage to start the treatment. After the maintenance dosage is established the patient will receive gradual increases in the amount of the dosage. Usually, after about three or five years of treatment the body will accept the allergens and the symptoms will be reduced or even idle. Allergies have been an unknown subject in the medical field. Now, the subject is giving doctors and researchers great knowledge and inspiration.

For example, in the future doctors plan to prevent potential, allergy symptoms from babies that are still unborn by genetically changing their DNA. Hopefully, researchers and doctors will soon eradicate allergies forever and create new treatments for other illnesses related to the immune system such as asthma, and sinusitis. web Guide to Understanding Your All web web.