What is an Allergy?
Whenever your immune system thinks an external substance is harmful for the body, it releases antibodies (histamines). These fight the allergen (the substance causing allergy) and protect the body.

Histamines act on the eyes, skin and mucous membrane. You are more likely to get allergies in these areas.

Types of Allergies
Allergic rhinitis or allergy of the nose is the most common form of allergy. The other types of allergies are;

• Food allergies
• Animal and insect allergies
• Drug allergies
• Dust allergies

96% of allergies are a combination of allergic asthma, rhinitis and skin allergies.

What Causes Allergies?
Everybody has a genetic tendency to develop allergies. If one of your parents have an allergy, you have a 25% chance of having one.

In case both your parents have it, then you have a 50% chance. If both your parents and a sibling have allergies, then you have a 75% chance of getting one.

There are only a limited number of allergens. Most of them are substances containing high protein.

Certain foods also cause allergic reactions. Non vegetarian food such as fish, nuts (cashews and peanuts), milk and vegetables containing seeds are common allergens.

Certain medicines like penicillin and even aspirin as well as sulphur-based drugs could be allergens.

Then there are the usual allergens like pollen and dust mites that breed in stagnant dust. You could also be allergic to animal fur.


Allergies can occur at any age but it is more common among younger people (childhood to 40 years of age).