How to recognize seasonal allergies? A geneticist identifies 8 symptoms

LabQuest + Q-Clinica geneticist, Doctor of Medical Sciences

In nature, there is a huge variety of allergens. They are divided into household, insect (arising from contact with insects and products of their life), bacterial, food, dust and pollen. There is also a major allergen (the so-called major allergen), which causes an allergic reaction in a person, and a minor allergen, with which the body reacts cross-reactively. This whole bouquet creates an allergic landscape that is individualized for each patient with pollinosis.

What it’s all about.

Seasonal allergy is hypersensitivity to pollen, where the plant protein of various plants acts as an allergen.

In Russia, there are three seasons of flowering. From early April to late June, trees bloom, then from June to July they are joined by cereals, and finally, from late July to September comes the period of maturation of weeds.

In May in our country – the peak of flowering of birch, horse chestnut, oak, ash, pine. That is why allergic rhinitis, which affects from 10% to 30% of children and adults, becomes a very urgent problem.

Symptoms

If every season in the same period you have the following signs, then this indicates the presence of allergies. These include:

1. Runny nose.
2. Nasal congestion.
3. Sneezing.
4. Burning and itching in the nose and mouth.
5. Redness of the eyes.
6. Feeling of sand in the eyes.
7. Coughing.
8. Choking attacks.

Causes

The appearance of pathology is due to sensitization. This is a condition when the body reacts too violently, becomes sensitive to a certain allergen. For example, to the pollen of trees and grasses.

First there is irritation to foreign substances, and then comes the allergic debut, which manifests itself as pollinosis, that is, seasonal rhinitis, conjunctivitis (inflammation of the mucous membrane of the eye). Can proceed as a bronchobstructive syndrome (narrowing of the lumen of the intrathoracic airways).

The reasons for the manifestation of such a reaction of the body – it is mainly a hereditary condition called atopy. It is characteristic of a large number of people on Earth.

Some scientists indicate that about 25% of individuals have a tendency to allergic reactions. In other words, their bodies produce more immunoglobulin E than normal people.

This is written in the genes. The person overreacts to the environment. Such people are called atopic, the tendency to this kind of reaction can manifest itself in different ways. For example, in the form of seasonal and food allergies, bronchial asthma and household types.

Treatment

Today, allergies are treatable. We can help patients with even the most severe cases, such as bronchial asthma. Therapy consists of medications.

There are general medications. They relieve the acute symptoms. For example, antihistamines that block the release of histamine – the main mediator of allergic reaction, which is produced by mast cells. Specific therapy, also called ASIT therapy, is also used.

Prevention

There are two directions: prevention of allergic reactions and exacerbations of seasonal allergies.

The first one is started from the birth of the child and even in the intrauterine period. What other measures are there? Nutrition of the mother, the purity of the environment, the quality of products, individual heredity, the presence of chronic diseases in pregnant women. A lot depends on the woman’s body.

At the end of the last century it was proved that intrauterine fetus has a special window of tolerance, when the immune system of the body as if trained, gets used to those types of allergens or protein antigens that are dissolved in the blood of the mother.

If this variety is high, and many different proteins get through the placenta, the child’s body adapts very well. As a rule, allergies do not occur in him.

Therefore, in many countries there is a principle of nutrition of pregnant women – the diet is selected very diverse, because the woman should receive a large number of microelements, vitamins, so that the fetus develops better and familiarizes itself with a large number of antigens and allergens.

This is one approach. But it is applicable only if the woman is healthy and she herself does not have any allergic diseases.

If the mother is allergic, then the methods will be completely different. In this case, it is necessary, on the contrary, to limit highly allergenic products, especially those that she herself is allergic. Then the born child is not likely to acquire hypersensitivity to foreign substances.