If you’re an allergy sufferer, you understand how upsetting and sometimes frightening it is to react to something that doesn’t seem to bother anyone else. Whether you have hay fever, asthma, food allergies, or allergic skin disorders, allergic diseases often hold an element of mystery because they seem to affect only certain people and often develop out of the blue.

Why are you allergic?

Allergic reactions are inappropriate, overblown responses mounted by the body’s immune system against a harmless substance.

1. Your genes. Someone with a genetic predisposition to allergies is said to be atopic, and is more likely to suffer from allergies
2. Your environment. The circumstances of your early childhood also influence how likely you are to develop allergies. Exposure to a wider array of germs early in life may “train” the immune system to distinguish harmful germs from harmless substances and thus dampen the body’s tendency to turn on the allergic response. This idea is known as the hygiene hypothesis. We try to keep children away from any possible germs and that works against, many a times.There has been ample evidence for the hygiene hypothesis over the past several decades. Experts do not recommend that parents purposely expose their children to germs. But a sterile environment may not be desirable either.
3. It’s also wise to use antibiotics only when truly needed, not every time a child has an infection. Viral infections won’t be helped by antibiotics. And by killing off both good and bad bacteria in the body, antibiotics can disrupt the microbiome.

Pinpointing your allergic reactions

The first step in allergy control is pinpointing the substances that trigger allergic reaction. Allergy testing is effective only when you and your allergist have some idea of what you are testing for. A detailed description of your symptoms and the situations that trigger them is invaluable in whittling down the possibilities.

Source : Harvard Health Education