WHAT IS AN ALLERGY: BREAKING THE ALLERGY STEREOTYPE
Half the people in the world have allergies. Millions suffer the runny nose, watery eyes and sneezing fits of hay fever. Or the itchy blotches of hives. Or the rash of eczema. Or the wheezing and shortness of breath of asthma.
Life with an allergy becomes an obstacle course of triggers to avoid. Pollen counts are followed like the FT Share Index. The cat is farmed out. The house is purged of all dust, with the bedroom stripped of curtains and carpets. Favourite foods are shunned. Arms are turned into pin-cushions by dozens of skin tests. ‘Injections’ are wincingly endured.
And yet for many, the misery remains.
But now there’s hope, thanks to the pioneering work of a small but growing number of doctors who treat allergy in a new and different way. Their approach – sometimes known as clinical ecology – is an offshoot of traditional allergy treatment, yet at the same time challenges some widely accepted concepts about allergy. They’ve even questioned the definition of what an allergy is.
In plain English, an allergy is an out-of-the-ordinary sensitivity to substances that don’t bother most people. Most people, for instance, can tolerate normal amounts of dust around the house. For others, however, a day’s accumulation guarantees a stuffy nose and a tough time breathing. Likewise, most people can eat tomatoes with no problem. A small number, however, immediately break out in a rash. Yet the allergy stereotype of the wheezy kid who can’t have a dog or the young woman whose skin breaks out whenever she goes near a tomato is only part of the story. Dust, pollen, moulds, fur and foods such as tomatoes, strawberries or seafood are only a few of the everyday items to which people can be allergic. Dyes, soaps, detergents, cleaning supplies, pesticides, cosmetics, plastics, drugs and pollutants are also potential troublemakers. (Many substances that are toxic in moderate or large doses, such as pesticides or food additives, tend to cause allergy in much smaller, so-called safe doses.) In short, anyone can be allergic to anything under the sun. (And sometimes even sunlight itself!) So even if fur, dust, tomatoes or some other common allergy trigger is identified as the major cause of your troubles, you and your doctor may be overlooking other, less common but important contributing causes. And unless all potential allergy triggers are considered, your symptoms may stubbornly persist.
Moreover, there’s much more to allergic reactions than wheezing, sneezing and itching. Unsuspected allergies can masquerade as any one of dozens of problems – anxiety, headaches, fatigue, depression, backaches, arthritis, colitis, gallbladder problems, hyperactivity, ulcers, even high blood pressure and compulsive eating or drinking. (And that list is far from complete.) In other words, while the skin, nose and lungs are the most common targets for allergy, any part of the body – muscles, brain, joints and so on – can and does react.
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