What makes us allergic to things?

Question: What makes us allergic to things?
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Asked by Zainab Saleem to Anais, katy, Lauren, Richard, Stuart on 15 Mar 2016.
- Lauren Laing answered on 15 Mar 2016:
  
  The precise cause of allergic reactions are still being investigated by lots of scientists. However, we do already know that these allergic symptoms are caused by our immune system, this leads to inflammation after an encounter with foreign proteins in the environment.
  These proteins or allergens, can be from plant pollen, animal dander (skin etc), insect venom, or certain foods.
  
  Our immune system receives input from the environment and produces an adaptive response. The immune system must recognize foreign invaders, such as bacteria and parasites, and launch an attack to neutralize the threat of infection.
  Another role of course is to recognize and destroy defective internal cells, to prevent a disease from spreading.
  
  The immune system recognizes what is foreign and separates it from ‘normal’ cells and compounds. This is achieved through the use of millions of unique antibodies (large Y-shaped proteins which help to identify and remove foreign objects like allergens) that can trigger an immune response.
  
  After an antibody becomes activated through recognition and subsequent interaction with a foreign protein, it is then mass produced by immune cells! This is then circulated around the body to form an immunological memory (this is how vaccinations work).
  
  Allergic reactions occur because the immune system gets conditioned to respond to inappropriate targets like cat hairs or pollen. If it attacks a harmless environmental protein, then it is an allergy.
- Richard Friend answered on 15 Mar 2016:
  
  Alright, here’s a weird idea that may freak you out but I’m going to say it anyway. Allergies are an over reaction of your own immune system, this much we know. But why? For thousands of years we’ve been living together with loads of other organisms in our bodies (think like the bacteria in your stomach) and this includes a load of things that you might not like, like stomach worms. We started getting rid of these back in the ’50s, but we evolved with them for years. I think that when you take away something that we’ve been living together for thousands of years you suddenly upset the balance and then bad things happen.
  Case in point – one guy got massive hayfever every year and got really fed up with it, so he gave himself worms. For as long as he had worms he didn’t have hayfever any more? Proof? Not quite. But it’s pretty interesting stuff. If gruesome!
- Stuart Atkinson answered on 15 Mar 2016:
  
  An allergic reaction is the body responding to something it does not recognise. These are usually proteins and may occur in pollen, wool, dust and animal hair, to name a few common examples. Some people have allergies to certain foods and this is why you’ll now see them highlighted in bold on the ingredients of a food container, such as milk. egg, nuts and shellfish. The body’s immune system creates this response to the foreign body, even though it is actually harmless.
  
  I know that allergies can sometimes come in cycles – for example you may have have fever for five years, then none for another five.
  
  The number of people with allergies is increasing but this is not fully understood. It may be because we insist on living in increasingly cleaner environments so that our bodies are not accustomed to living with as much dust and dirt.

Question: What makes us allergic to things?

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