It may sound odd, but allergies is essentially your body making a mistake. Allergies are your body incorrectly identifying something in your body and deciding it is not harmless, but a severe danger. Then the body reacts in ways to alert you to it despite it actually being mundane.
Allergies can affect people in minor and severe ways. There are legions of people who take allergy medication every fall to deal with the contaminants in the air. However more dangerously are people who have severe reactions. These are often at risk of fatal complications if they lack the ability to treat it near instantly.
Allergy Symptoms
There are many symptoms that can let you know that your allergies are acting up. Not every allergy is a life or death situation. Here are some of the symptoms that you can expect:
- Itchy Eyes - When you’re having a minor allergic reaction, your eyes will often turn red and start watering.
- Nose Issues - Whether it gets runny or stuffy, your nose is likely going to react during a minor allergic reaction.
- Rashes - Skin is another thing that can be affected poorly by a reaction. It will often swell slightly and produce a dry red rash.
- Swelling - This is often where serious issues begin. Severe swelling can lead to an inability to breathe or swallow as your air passages tighten up.
Common Allergies
There are many things people are allergic to. Food is one of the most common, but there are many other things. Many people often have allergic reactions to medications, and not knowing about medicinal allergies can be very dangerous. Here are some of the most common things people are allergic to:
Food
Food allergies are often easily tested for. While some foods produce minor reactions, there are many foods that produce severe, potentially fatal reactions in people. In fact, there’s 8 foods that make up over 90% of the allergies that people have.
- Shellfish - This allergy is mainly found in adults, though it can show up in children as well. Shellfish is one of those allergies that is common to have a severe reaction to.
- Eggs - An allergy to eggs can really manifest itself in missing out of a lot of different foods. Considering how much eggs are used in everything, it’s a rough allergy.
- Tree Nuts - It’s important to differentiate between peanut and tree nut allergies. Since they are very different items in where they come from. It’s not uncommon for someone to have an allergy to both of these.
- Peanuts - Peanuts are another one of the serious food allergies that can occur. Children having fatal reactions have caused a lot of companies to make their recipes and factories completely peanut free.
- Fish - This is another allergy that tends to only show itself in adults just like shellfish does.
- Soy - Soybeans are one of the biggest cash crops in the world, and they continue to be integrated into many of the foods we eat.
- Milk - This is an allergy that tends to show up in children rather than in adults.
- Wheat/Grains - Food allergy to wheat and grains usually means that there is gluten in the food. While many people claim to have a gluten allergy, the truth is most of those people are just making things up.
Other Common Allergies
- Dust - Dust is one allergy that is very difficult to avoid. The only good news is that severe “dust” allergies are not common and it’s usually more of a constant low level annoyance.
- Bees - Bee stings can be one of the most dangerous of allergies. Most people have a very small amount of allergic reaction to bee stings. However when it’s serious for people, it’s very serious.
- Medicine - Medicinal allergies are very common. Being allergic to one thing means that every drug that contains that item has to be removed from potential treatments.
