allergy is an abnormally high sensitivity to a certain substance, such as dust, pollens, foods, or drugs. Symptoms of allergies commonly include inflammation, sneezing, itching, and skin rashes.

allergic reaction occurs when your immune system reacts to a foreign substance from the outside world. These foreign substances, normally small proteins, can come from dust mite feces, pollens, molds, and many other natural and man-made objects.

People with seasonal allergic rhinitis (hay fever) only experience symptoms during the time of year when certain allergens are in the air outdoors. When most people talk about allergy season, they're referring to springtime, when plants bloom and tree pollen counts soar. However, summer is the season for grass and weed pollen allergies, and autumn is the time for ragweed and mold allergies.

A food allergy occurs when the immune system mistakenly believes that a harmless substance, in this case a food item, is harmful. In an attempt to protect the body, it creates IgE antibodies to that food. The next time the individual eats that food, the immune system releases massive amounts of chemicals and histamines in order to protect the body.

Atopic dermatitis, the most common type of eczema, can be a chronic, itchy condition in which the skin is overly sensitive to many things. People with atopic dermatitis also often have a higher likelihood of developing certain allergic conditions, such as a food allergy, hay fever, and asthma. However, atopic dermatitis is not an allergy because it is not a specific response to a specific allergen, and very rarely will finding the allergy and eliminating it completely clear the eczema.

It normally works the other way around. People normally grow into allergies, but some children outgrow food allergies after long periods of avoiding the allergen, and up to half of young children outgrow their asthma, but many find that the symptoms return later in life.

middot; Use a cool mist vaporizer/humidifier at night to moisten the air you breathe to keep nasal/bronchial secretions thin and flowing. middot; Saline gargles (one teaspoon of salt in ½ cup warm water) every four hours while awake will decrease the mucus in the back of throat and help relieve a sore throat. middot; Saline nose drops (NOT Afrin or Neo-Synephrine) upon rising in the morning and at bedtime to moisten secretions.

Theoretically, desensitization or allergy shots to poison ivy can be accomplished; however, practically it cannot be done. It has been tried in the past, and the side effects have been too great to warrant widespread use. Thus, at the present time, there is no available desensitization program for poison ivy or poison oak.

Allergies occur after a person with allergic tendencies is repeatedly exposed to the substance in his/her environment or his/her diet. It is estimated that at least 20% of the population is likely to develop some kind of allergy.

There is no standard way for an allergy to begin, and the onset may be sudden or gradual. For a person to become allergic to a substance, he/she must be exposed to it more than once, and generally that exposure is quite frequent. Often symptoms develop after an unusual stress to the immune system such as following a severe viral infection.