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Allergy relief

Allergy refers to an acquired potential to develop immunologically mediated adverse reaction to normally innocuous substances. Allergies are inappropriate reactions of the immune system to a variety of substances (allergens). Allergic reaction provokes symptoms such as itching, coughing, wheezing, sneezing, watery eyes, inflammation and fatigue. It is normally believed that allergic reaction includes an early specific immune response and a late inflammatory reaction. The development of allergy or other types of immune hypersensitivity is an important undesirable effect of acquired immunity in humans. Atopic allergy is characterized by an excess production of IgE antibody, which attaches to mast cells and basophils. A single mast cell or basophil may bind as many as a half a million molecules of IgE. Food allergy has become a problem which concerns many clinicians. Adverse reactions to foods in which the pathogenesis involves an immunological response to food components are appropriately called food-hypersensitivity reactions. This term is considered to be synonymous with "food allergy". Allergic symptoms are brought about through the release of pharmacologically active mediators, notably histamine, leukotrienes and enzymes, from cells into surrounding tissue and vascular structures. These mediators are normally stored or synthesized de novo in special cells known as mast cells and basophil granulocytes. Mast cells are dispersed throughout animal tissue whilst basophils circulate within the vascular system. These cells synthesize and store mediators within the cell, unless a specialized sequence of events occurs to trigger its release. Various allergy relief therapies have been pursued in order to treat the symptoms of allergies. Among them, anti-allergics and histamine H-receptor antagonists have been used. Histamine antagonists are administered to antagonize the action of histamine released from mast cells in response to the presence of allergens. They reduce the redness, itching and swelling caused by the action of histamine on the target tissues, and serve to prevent or alleviate many of the symptoms resulting from degranulation of mast cells. However, anti-histamines have also been associated with adverse reactions such as diminished alertness, slowed reaction times and somnolence.

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