Mind your Allergies ........

A lot of people believe they have allergies. Its common to hear, Owh, I'm allergic to so and so and so. Thus, they avoid certain foods and things due to some experiences in the past. But how allergic are you really to the things that you believe you are? Hmmm.... Before we can answer that question. First of all, let's understand what allergies really are.

According to Wikipedia : Allergy or Allergies is defined as a damaging immune response by the body to a substance, especially pollen, fur, a particular food, or dust, to which it has become hypersensitive.

In medical terms, we describe allergies as an abnormal response of the immune system towards certain triggers termed allergens which can be anything from food, dust, mites, items in contact, heat cold et cetera, et cetera. For some reason, these allegens trigger a misguided immune response that causes physical symptoms on to a person that sometimes can be life threatening.

How I explain in to my pateint is it basically like, you pinching someone and the person slaps you back. The trigger can be small, but the counter effects can be really extensive. There is a genetic link that causes allergies. Usually if a parent has an allergy, there is a 15% chance of the child having similar allergies. Some quote 30-60% chance if both parents have allergies. However, the environment still plays a major role in determining how bad your reaction would be.

The most common allergies are hay fever (which is all the seasonal flus and nasal related allergies), eczema (skin), allergic eyes (usually related to hay fever), hives (which are those wheals that form on your skin when exposed to allergen), asthma which is quite common in children and in severe cases anaphylaxis which involves severe allergic reaction that causes mucous membranes inflammation and may lead to breathing difficulties and death.

The trend of allergies seem to have increased over the years, and some believe it is due to the amount of processed diet that we are consuming daily. Certain chemicals in processed foods and colouring trigger an IgE response (immunoglobulin that reacts to allergens) thus making us more and more sensitive to certain allergens.

So how do we tackle this issue? The only way is to figure out which allergen is affecting us, and avoid it. Sounds simple? Well, not exactly. Like I always say to my patients, we do not live in a bubble. Everyday, we are exposed to pollution and the environment so there is always a chance to have an allergy.

The mainstay of being healthy is to look after our gut. Even if you ask old Chinese traditional medicine people, or the indian Ayurvedics, they will always put a strong priority to gut health. And why is that so? In the recent years we have discovered that in adults 80% of our immune system is produced in the gut. So if the gut is not healthy, thus our immune system will not be healthy. And how do we keep the gut healthy? It all comes back to what we consume. Which is why I totally love the hair profiler epigenetics test, because it gives me an idea of how healthy a person's gut is.

But the hair profiler is just a screening device that is non-specific. So, what else can we do? In the past, we use to do skin prick Rass Test to test for allergens taht may affect a person. It involves pricking the skin with the allergen and waiting for a reaction which is usually observed after a few days. However, some patients are not keen for this sort of testing that requires skin pricking and maybe uncomfortable. Luckily, with advancement of technology, we can just do a simple blood test to determine allergens. Based on which part of the world you live in, different allergens would be tested.

In the Asean Panel we test 36 different allergens which are:

1. Total IgE 10. Milk 19. Codfish 28. Cladosporium

2. Latex 11. Chocolate 20. Tuna 29. Penicillium

3. Banana 12. Egg Yolk 21. Salmon 30. Dog Dander

4. Orange 13. Egg White 22. Mucor 31. Cat Dander

5. Rice, White 14. Chicken 23. Timothy Grass 32. Cockcroach

6. Wheat, Food 15. Beef 24. Bermuda Grass 33. Housedust

7. Sesame Seed 16. Clam 25. Alternaria 34. Mite farinae

8. Soybean 17. Crab 26. Aspergillus 35. Mite pteronyssinus

9. Peanut 18. Shrimp 27. Candida 36. Blomia Tropicalis

Don't worry too much about the weird names, your doctor will be able to explain (hopefully) what they are. And all it takes is 5 mls of blood and 5 working days and you can get your allergy profile done. The cost for the test is around RM 600 together with consultation and the blood taking service. This is mainly for external allergens that causes immune response. There is another test called food intolerance test which tests out around 100 different food substances but that is for a blog on another day.