What makes me allergy prone?

Believe it or not, your biggest risk of developing allergies is actually genetic. Although there is still a lot to learn about allergies, we do know that your overall chances of developing one is linked to whether or not one or both of your parents themselves are sufferers. For instance, children with one allergy prone parent have around a 30% chance of developing an allergy themselves, whilst for those with two allergy prone parents the figure is closer to 70%! So what triggers an allergy to start? Well, exposure is the most obvious thing. You can breathe allergens all your life and not have any adverse symptoms at all, then one day your body decides that today a specific allergen is an unwanted intruder, and your immune system immediately begins to develop antibodies to detect it's next arrival. Your body's immune system gets to work creating special 'mast cells' to protect itself and when it does detect the allergens next visit, these cells burst open and flood your body with chemicals, such as histamine - which is what causes the dreaded allergy symptoms like puffy, itchy eyes, runny nose and even swelling in your airways which can also cause Asthma symptoms. Poor Health Another less obvious trigger can be your current state of health. If you are run down or weak, perhaps from a viral infection or similar condition, and then come into contact with a particular allergen, your body is even more likely to develop an allergy to it. You can actually be allergic to something and not suffer the adverse symptoms. For instance, you could be allergic to mould spores, but the level of spores in your home may be below the threshold at which your body feels it needs to react. Someone else could be in the same room with you and be exposed to exactly the same mould spores, but they may have an immediate allergic reaction. This would be because their own threshold is obviously lower than yours. In Summary So it makes obvious sense to keep allergen exposure levels down as much as possible. Be wary of bold claims from the latest 'must have' allergy reduction gizmo's that appear online and in the papers every year around springtime. No matter what anybody tells you, it is not possible to completely eradicate 100% of allergens from your own personal Breathing Space, but it is possible to reduce them substantially. The aim should not be to eradicate them, but to simply reduce them low enough to keep them below your threshold and off the radar of your immune system. We explored ways of doing just that in our previous blog which you can read here.