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 The immune system is one of the most important human functional systems, thanks to which our body is able to fight many dangerous environmental factors, including the impact of pathogens. Unfortunately, sometimes the immune system comes into confrontation with substances that do not pose any threat to our health.
Such substances that provoke the immune system are called allergens, and the body's painful reaction to them is called allergy. In 1819, the first clinical description of a patient's reaction to plant pollen appeared, and since then, references to painful reactions caused by contact with certain substances have become increasingly common in the medical literature.
After the famous works of Clemens von Pirke were published, a new direction arose in medicine - clinical allergology. In 1913, British physiologist Henry Hallett Dale published the theory that an allergic reaction releases a neurotransmitter from the so-called mast cells that causes certain allergy symptoms. Modern medicine interprets allergy as an inadequate reaction of the body to environmental factors or substances that are not dangerous for most people. However, it should be remembered that the origin of this reaction is purely immune, and its symptoms, such as indigestion, can be caused by completely different reasons that have nothing to do with the manifestation of an allergy.
Contrary to popular belief, the first contact with an allergen usually does not cause a response from the body. As a rule, the body begins to react painfully to a substance after repeated contact with it, sometimes after several weeks, months, and even years. This period of "waiting" for the disease is called the time of sensitization. From the moment the body begins to react to allergens, any contact, even with a meager dose of these substances, will be accompanied by painful symptoms. In healthy people, the immune system is a reliable defense against all sorts of pathogenic organisms - viruses, bacteria, fungi, - as well as cell neoplasms at an early stage of their development. Disruption of this mechanism dramatically increases the body's susceptibility to infections; in a weakened immune system, the HIV virus develops into the most dangerous disease - AIDS, in which any infectious disease can lead to inevitable death.
This concept was introduced into the practice of medicine in 1906 by the Austrian pediatrician Clemence von Pirquet, who understood by allergy the inadequate response of the body's immune system to various substances. Today, the number of known substances that in one way or another can cause an allergic reaction has already approached 40,000. If, some time after a painful reaction of the body to any allergen, unwanted contact with this substance occurs again, anaphylactic shock may occur. As a result of the latter, the work of the respiratory system and blood circulation is seriously disrupted, the smooth muscles of the muscles change pathologically, and edema of the mucous membranes develops.
Often, anaphylactic shock threatens the patient's life and requires urgent medical attention; the main anti-shock drug in this case is adrenaline. The mechanism of an allergic reaction is quite complex. Once in the body through breathing, with food or through the skin, the allergen comes into contact with lymphocytes, which in response begin to produce antibodies. When antibodies interact with mast cells, mediators of an allergic reaction, primarily histamine, are released.After some time, sometimes just a few minutes later, symptoms appear: redness, skin rash, burning sensation, watery nasal discharge, cough, suffocation, and sometimes anaphylactic shock.
The most common allergens are plant pollen, which causes hay fever. Its main symptoms include itching in the nose and nasopharynx, mucous discharge from the nose, loss of taste and smell, tearing, hearing loss, and sometimes ear pain. Although typical allergic symptoms are easy to recognize, special skin tests with various allergens are used to determine the exact cause of the disease, the essence of which is to observe the body's response to their effects. If redness appears at the site of contact of the allergen with the skin, this indicates the body's susceptibility to this substance. It is more difficult to identify a food allergen: in such cases, one or another suspicious product is removed from the food in turn, and this can take a very long time.
The number of various kinds of allergic diseases all over the world is growing steadily, and today they are already called diseases of civilization. Fresh air plays a huge role in eliminating the main causes of allergies, unfortunately, in big cities, it is highly polluted by industrial emissions and exhaust gases from cars. The use of various household and cosmetic chemicals increases the number of allergic diseases; has a negative impact tobacco smokeand sometimes various exotic foods and spices.
Kazminova Yulia Valerievna
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