The frequency of allergic diseases has increased significantly in recent decades. This fact had to become obvious not only to the experts but also to the public. It is a real national disease, which is making the lives of more and more of our compatriots miserable, yet the information of the Hungarian population is still not adequate. The summary below tries to help with this.
He knew that allergy as a disease is typically a so-called multifactorial disease, which, in addition to genetics, is influenced by the state of the individual's immune system and environmental factors.
Therefore, the answer is not easy when our patients with allergies ask what is the cause of their illness.
An inherited tendency
Inherited predisposition clearly plays a role. Research has already identified more than fifty genes in the background of allergies, and this also explains the family accumulation. If both parents are prone to this condition, their child's chance of developing an allergic condition is significantly higher. In the case of one parent, the probability that the child will develop some form of allergic disease is 25-30 percent, while in the case of two allergic parents it can reach 75 percent. We inherited this from our ancestors, but we cannot change it at the moment.
Immune system status
The state of the individual's immune system from the point of view of allergy is also a complex issue. On the one hand, susceptibility to allergies is significantly influenced by the individual's past. It is a proven fact that those who have been breastfed for a longer period of time are much less prone to this type of illness. Here is another argument for the importance of breast milk. On the other hand, the very witty explanation called the hygiene hypothesis can also play a role in the significant increase in allergies. In our body, many types of white blood cells take care of our protection. One of these subtypes is T helper 1 and 2 cells. In allergic diseases, the proportion of these cells changes in favor of type 2 cells - which play a central role in the allergic reaction. Since infectious diseases trigger the response of T helper 1 cells, the typical way of life in developed countries, the spread of antibiotics, and the – of course – joyful decrease in infectious diseases cause the strengthening of the 2 response. That's why we don't need to force our children into excessively "sterile" conditions, and we should beware of unnecessary antibiotic treatments.
Environment
The third reason is to be found in the environment. And here we have to write that allergy - depending on which allergen we are sensitive to - means a very different clinical picture.
Obviously, an individual with a food allergy will have different symptoms than someone with hay fever.
The following subgroups can be distinguished:
- Respiratory allergies: this includes, in addition to hay fever, extrinsic asthma bronchiale and occupational lung diseases
- Food allergies
- Dermatological allergic symptoms. There are many forms of acute and chronic urticaria, atopic dermatitis, and contact dermatitis
- Drug allergies
- Insect venom allergies
Our environment, which is constantly and rapidly changing compared to previous generations, does not make it easy to avoid allergens.
The chemical industry produces approximately 400 million tons of chemical substances annually in approximately one hundred thousand different forms (the former value was still 1 million tons per year in 1930). Millions of new chemicals are produced in laboratories, and although the vast majority of them are not marketed, every year 4-5 thousand (!) preparations containing new molecules are put on the market. During these preventive clinical tests, it is not necessarily clear what kind of late reaction they can cause with their longer-term use.
Contact allergy is certainly as old as mankind. In Greek mythology, during the story of Herakles, we can read that when he later puts on a woolen shirt soaked in the blood of Nessos, which he killed, the fabric experiences an unbearable burning pain. And this also causes the death of the hero, who cannot bear the pain and burns his own body on a pyre. Since the tales have a basis in truth, it is conceivable that Herakles' loss was caused by a severe contact allergy.
However, our bodies are now facing challenges caused by new substances.
Ragwort
Or take the case of ragweed. Although its scientific name was given by Carl von Linnaeus in 1753, the plant native to the American continent was still unknown in European fields at that time. Linné probably described the species based on herbarium specimens received from America.
The spread of ragwort in Europe in the 20th century. began at the beginning of the century. The seeds of the various ragweed species were certainly transported by ship from North America to Europe with grain imports. And they probably spread from the European ports: e.g. From Rijeka and Croatia to Transdanubia, from Trieste and Genoa to Northern Italy, and from Marseille to the Rhône Valley.
Today, these are the three regions most infected with weed in Europe: the Rhône Valley, Northern Italy, and the most infected of all: the Carpathian Basin.
In Hungary, ragweed was first noticed near Orsova in the 20th century. at the beginning of the century. Here, one of the well-known names of ragweed is: "Serbian grass", which also refers to its place of origin. From the 1920s, the species gradually spread - within 30 years - throughout the Great Plain and then also across the Danube. Compared to its rivals, it has adapted excellently to the warming climate of the Carpathian Basin, and is now found throughout the country and has become the most abundant pest weed.
While in 1968, our researchers operating a pollen trap did not find any ragweed pollen, by the end of the 1990s they had already measured the highest pollen concentration in the world. Because of its long flowering, there is pollen in the air for 90-125 days a year, and there are 45-60 days when its value is above the allergy threshold.
This also shows that it is not easy for our body to adapt to changing environmental challenges, but a better understanding of allergic symptoms helps to recognize the symptoms and find the right treatment. This will be discussed in the next section.
Finally, we make an attempt to dispel a misconception.
Many of our patients do not understand how they became allergic to the cream they have been using for a long time, to the food they have eaten several times or to the medicine they have received years ago. In fact, we never become allergic when we encounter an allergen for the first time. Then we can't be. For the first time, a sensitization process takes place in our body, which stops before the allergic reaction starts. Since this happens at the level of cells and biotransmitters, we are not even aware of it. Hypersensitivity is triggered by repeated Then the prepared cells in the already sensitized body start the pathological processes that cause allergic symptoms.
Therefore, we should not be surprised that previously used, well-known substances on the Internet elicit some kind of reaction.
Dr. György Temesszentandrasi
internist, immunologist, allergist
Photo: Pixabay
