Asthma and Allergy Treatment

To be able to understand about allergies and astma. You need to know in advance about how the immune system works. Immune system is useful to protect the body from harmful foreign substances like bacteria, viruses, and other foreign substances. Immune system is to destroy unwanted Organism. All the allergic reaction is an immune system reaction to certain substances, generally not too dangerous. Like substances in food, touch, or smell.

White blood cells or known as lymphocytes is one of the main players in allergic reactions. Lymphocyte functions to destroy all the harmful foreign objects into the body. Hazardous substances that can cause allergies are named allergens. Read the rest of this entry »

Anti histamine is very useful to treat the symptoms of allergies, but there are many side effects that need to be considered. First generation antihistamines can cause drowsiness, dry nose and mouth, and blurred vision. The results of the research show that those who drink antihistamine, the driving ability is worse than when drunk. Read the rest of this entry »

1. Avoid allergens

There are some strategies to deal with allergies. But the best way is to avoid themselves from allergy spreaders substances. Avoiding allergens such as penicillin or poisonous ivy trees, or cats is easy. However, avoiding some substances such as pollen or house dust is not easy. As much as possible if you have already known you are allergic to something. Avoid the allergens. Read the rest of this entry »

To find out if you suffer from allergies or not. We recommend that you immediately see a nearest doctor in your place. To determine whether you suffer from allergies or not, the doctor will ask a series of questions about various symptoms that you have. Family health history, medical problems ever had, the emotional issues, lifestyle, work habits, including eating and recreation habits.

You must realize if information is very important in diagnosing allergies. You can have allergies because you have the family who has suffered an allergy before. Although the type of allergy is not the same, this could happen.

Skin test
To diagnose allergies, the most commonly used is the skin test and can be done in several ways. Usually the allergen suspected as the cause of allergy is  applied to the forearm, upper arm or back. Allergens can also be injected under the skin. In this way, the results can be seen 15 minutes later. If the tested  part is swollen and red, then the test is considered positive.

Skin test can not be fully guaranteed. Positive test result but in the daily life, the body does not react to these allergens. The results of a positive skin test to food allergens tend to be less accurate, if a test result is negative, it does not mean that you are not allergic to the food.

Skin test is very useful for respiratory allergies, insect sting allergies, latex allergies and allergic to penicillin.

Specific  IgE Antibody Test

Antibody test specificly for immunoglobulin E, which was formerly known as radioallergosorbent test (RAST),is useful  blood test to diagnose sensitivity to the inhalated alerfen like pollen or dust. These tests measure the antibodies inside. Unlike the skin test, this test is more comfortable and does not risk because all examinations to blood samples carried out in test tubes.

The weakness of this test is not sensitive to skin allergens. Analysis of blood samples should also be performed in special laboratories that the process takes a day or more, besides it also costs more expensive than skin tests.

Hopefully this article will help you understand how to diagnose allergy to yourself.