• Question: are you born with an allergy?

    Asked by mcnameeee to Elaine, Heather, Keith on 27 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Heather Eyre

      Heather Eyre answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      Allergies do tend to run in families, and when you are a baby a chunk of your immunity to diseases comes from breastmilk, but you don’t tend to be born with them.

      Allergies develop through exposure. In order to be allergic to something you need to have antibodies against it and to make antibodies to something you need to be exposed to it. You can also grow out of allergies too!

      I’m allergic to nickel and latex – the same as my Mum, and grass pollen like my Dad. But I’d didn’t end up with all the allergies that my parents have as I’m not allergic to tree pollen.

      p.s. my hayfever is really terrible at the moment 🙁

    • Photo: Keith Siew

      Keith Siew answered on 27 Jun 2013:

      There is a growing body of evidence that because we now all live in such “clean” environments and homes that the amount of allergies are on the rise! This is in part because our immune systems haven’t gotten used to a wide range of things and “overreact” to a new alien substance by having an allergic response. Whereas older generations before us as kids were out rolling around in the grass and eating mud pies… young children today are indoor with wooden floors and air conditioning switched on!

      But as Heather said a big issue with allergies is the “sensitisation” issue where continued repeated exposure to something can heighten the extremeness of the allergic reaction… causing anaphylatic shock (I have a friend or two who carry adrenaline pens to inject with if they accidentally get exposed to nuts or shellfish)

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