• Question: Why are we allergic to things?

    Asked by Hannah to Ed, Kerrianne, Nina, Oli, yoyehudi on 8 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Yo Yehudi

      Yo Yehudi answered on 8 Nov 2017:

      As someone who has to take antihistamines every day, I wish we had a good cure for allergies! I’m by no means an immunologist, but I suspect that in some cases being exposed to things that cause allergies while you’re still young can prevent allergies from happening. A great story about that is to do with a yummy snack in one of the places I grew up. Israel has a snack called “bamba”, which is a soft peanut flavoured snack. It’s so common that most kids will be given it even as babies – maybe like biscuits here? Anyway, someone noticed that jewish kids in the UK had *far* more peanut allergies than equivalent kids in Israel, and the theory is that Israeli kids are exposed to peanuts so young it confers some immunity, which is interesting. The full paper is here: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1414850#t=article (ps, if you ever get a chance to try bamba, do! I think you can buy it from Ocado in the UK)

    • Photo: Oli Wilson

      Oli Wilson answered on 9 Nov 2017:

      Generally (I think) allergic reactions happen when your body’s defences, the immune system, overreact to things that aren’t actually attacking your body. Things like peanuts or cat hairs can’t really damage your body on their own, but for some reason some people’s immune systems treat them like invaders and attack. When they do this they can damage their own body – in some people they release a chemical that causes inflammation and swelling, in others they attack the body’s own cells, and in some people the rubbish that’s left over after all the cells are done fighting starts clogging things up and causing damage. This damage is what you’re seeing when you see an allergic reaction happening.
      Happily, I don’t think I have any allergies, and I’d love to check out bamba some time!

Comments