Facts on allergies and hay fever

Allergy may be due to genetic predisposition. About 30% are the chances of someone getting allergy is hereditary. If both parents have the same allergy, the chance that their child will have it is even 75%. It can be detrminated only by external factors.

Asthma and allergy
It is not true that asthma is the same as an allergy. Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease. The patient has trouble breathing. By contrast, you only have allergy symptoms when you are exposed to allergen to which you are sensitive, such as pollen or cat hair. But someone always has asthma.

It is true that there are many allergic asthmatics. Allergic reactions worsen asthma. The risk of an allergic asthma attack is smaller when the asthma patient takes the prescribed medication.

Influence of season
It is also not true that hay fever only occurs in spring. Because of the climate change there is a number of shrubs, plants and trees blooming much earlier than before. This means that some people have hay fever season starts in winter.

City against countryside
The hay is not the culprit. Hay fever is actually a misnomer because people wrongly used the hay with watery eyes and sore nose. Today we know that the airborne pollen of shrubs and trees also cause the disease.

Pollen
It is of course true that there is much more pollen in the countryside than in urban areas or on the coast. The amount of pollen in the air can vary greatly from day to day. On a windy sunny day it is more likely to be much pollen. Even if at the end of the day the wind dies down, the danger has not passed, because the pollen from the upper layers than descend. Rain is beneficial because it washes the pollen from the air, so the hours after a rain could be beneficial for people with hay fever.

Young children
Teething problems often help the child to get a healthy immune system, but it’s a myth that this is a case with allergy. The opposite is unfortunately likely to be true: If a young child has allergies, it just develops a better chance to get it later. Preventive measures, such as good ventilation are very important in the nursery.

Nutrition
Food intolerance is not the same as food allergy. If reactions occur within 20 minutes means that it is a food alergy. known allergens include herbs, vegetables, peanuts, tree nuts, egg and milk.

We’d like to thank Miss Sue Lang on this great article.