Allergy is a disorder when your immune system responses to some substances called allergens in other way than in most people. Sometimes this condition of immune system is called atopy. If your reaction to some substance, for example, exact flowers, or food is acquired, predictable and rapid, you have hypersensitivity to this substance.

The signs of allergy are common between all people, but allergic diseases are more common in industrialized countries. However, with pollution of the world the difference between pollution in industrialized and agricultural countries gradually erase.

The mechanism of allergy is studied. The allergen substance particles are inhaled with lungs and then the reaction comes – rhinitis, runny nose, skin irritation. However, how allergy appears it is not known. There is a hypothesis that if allergens are met early in life, this may lead to allergy in future. On the contrary, exposure to components of bacteria may reduce atopic diseases in future. That is why, children living in large families have less probability of suffering from allergy in future.

Also there is evidence that some common parasites, such as intestinal worms (e.g. hookworms), secrete special particles into human body that is passed into bloodstream and suppress the immune system. This made scientists make another hypothesis – that the correct work of immune system is possible only because of presence of parasites.

Allergies have certain classification and can be either mild, or life-threatening or asthma triggering. Mild allergies are reactions like hay fever. They are expressed in such symptoms as allergic conjunctivitis (eye irritation), itchiness, and runny nose.

However, untreated or severe allergies can trigger asthma or other serious health conditions. This is why you should not think about something unimportant. Allergy is a serious condition with possibly serious consequences and it should be treated.

Today there are many tests to identify allergic conditions, including skin tests for responses to known allergens. Also special blood analyzes for the presence and levels of allergen-specific IgE are available nowadays.

In modern medical science there are different approaches to treatments of allergies. First important rule for allergy-sufferers is avoiding allergen. Once you realize to which substance you have allergic reaction, just try to avoid situation in which you face an allergen. If you know that every spring you have ha fever – a reaction to blooming plants, you should take an advice with your health care specialist and take anti-histamines in this dangerous period. Such medications as Clarinex, Flonase, Rhinocort and Allegra reduce symptoms of seasonal allergy, and ease allergic rhinitis. Also a very good medicine for reducing symptoms of seasonal allergy is Claritin. It is world bestseller, besides.

For more serious cases you may need steroids or other oral medications, immunotherapy to desensitize the response to allergen, and targeted therapy.