Allergy Facts You Must Know

What are the Most Common Allergies?

The most common allergies are to: 

• pollen 
• house dust mites 
• mould 
• wasps and bees 
• pets such as cats and dogs 
• industrial and household chemicals 
• foods such as milk, nuts (mainly peanuts) and eggs 

You can also be allergic to fruit, medicines such as penicillin, metals such as nickel in jewellery, and rubber.

What are the Main Allergy Symptoms?

The most common allergy symptoms are: 

• sneezing 
• runny nose 
• itchy eyes 
• wheezing 
• coughing 
• itchy skin rashes (dermatitis) 

The type of symptoms you experience depends on what you're allergic to and how you come into contact with it. For example, you may have difficulty breathing if you inhale pollen, or develop dermatitis if you apply a lotion containing a chemical you're allergic to, or nausea and vomiting if you eat a food that you're allergic to.

Allergy reaction can be life threatening

What are Allergic ILLNESSES?

Some allergic symptoms are conditions in themselves. 

• Hay fever is a runny nose, sneezing, blocked nose and itchy eyes caused by contact with pollen. 

• Eczema is itchy inflammation of the skin that is often linked to allergy. An eczema flare-up can be triggered by foods, house dust mites, pollen or pet hair. 

• Asthma is a type of breathing problem that can be triggered by allergens such as pets, house dust mite droppings in dust, pollens and moulds. 

• Allergic rhinitis is similar to hay fever but occurs all year round. 

• Urticaria is a red, itchy, bumpy rash that can occur as part of an allergic reaction, for example to foods, drugs and insect stings. 

• Allergic eye disease is also known as allergic conjunctivitis, and is where the eyes become itchy and red after contact with an allergen such as pollen or pet hair. 

Bee Stung cause hundreds of death per year

Can Allergy be Inherited?

Some people are more likely to develop an allergy because it runs in their family. If this is the case, you're said to be atopic or to have atopy. Boys are more likely to develop an inherited allergy than girls, as are babies who have a low birth weight.

Inherited Allergies

Is an Allergic Reaction Dangerous? 

Allergic reactions can be mild, moderate or severe. In some cases they can be life threatening. This is known as anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis is a medical emergency and needs prompt treatment.

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What Your Eyes Can Tell You About Your Health

Everything from allergies to autoimmune diseases can present with ocular symptoms first. And while red eyes, discharge, itching, light sensitivity or visual changes can be uncomfortable enough to bring patients in to see their optometrists, some symptoms, such as optic nerve or vascular changes, take place inside the eye and can go unnoticed. This is why it's important for adults to have an eye exam every two years. 

'There are so many conditions we can find that don't have symptoms, so coming in every couple of years allows us to look for trends or changes,' explains Craig Meckelborg, an optometrist with FYidoctors in Calgary. Eye symptoms combined with a patient's medical history will alert doctors to possible systemic diseases. For example, Rodovich was a smoker who had previously experienced a 'hypertensive episode' ' a spike in blood pressure ' two risk factors for stroke. (She quit smoking after her stroke.) 

What's more, women are more susceptible to certain conditions that can present in the eyes, such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and thyroid dysfunction, says Setareh Ziai, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Ottawa Eye Institute.

Watch for these additional symptoms and talk to your doctor if you have any concerns:

1. Bulging eyes： can be a sign of thyroid eye disease, a condition related to autoimmune thyroid disease that is marked by swelling of the muscles and tissues of the eye and orbit.

2. Pupil abnormalities：where one pupil is larger than the other or where one pupil reacts inappropriately when exposed to light ' could signify an underlying medical problem.

3. Yellow eyes： can signal liver disease. Both hepatitis and cirrhosis can turn the whites of the eyes yellow.

4. Redness, pain and inflammation of the ocular coats： a condition called scleritis, can be a symptom of a number of autoimmune diseases, including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and thyroid disease.

5. Eye spasms, or annoying eye twitches： are caused by contractions of the eyelid muscles due to irritation of the muscle fibres. The underlying cause is almost always completely benign and can occasionally be precipitated by stress, fatigue or caffeine.

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Too Much of A Good Thing: Drinking Too Much Water Can Kill You

You’ve heard it a million times—“make sure to stay hydrated”—and if you’re a summer athlete than you’ve heard it even more. There seems to be a fascination with dehydration and the serious risks that come along with it, but you can have too much of a good thing.

According to Andy Blow, co-founder and Sports Scientist at Precision Hydration and a Red Bull High Performance partner, athletes and avid exercisers are most concerned with avoiding dehydration, but in reality over-hydration is actually a much more common problem.

"This can be especially problematic if athletes drink excessive amounts of low sodium fluids over several hours, usually immediately before and during an event and end up diluting the levels of sodium in their blood," says Blow "If it goes unchecked, this can result in hyponatremia, a potentially deadly condition where the brain swells due to having to absorb excess fluid from the blood."

Hyponatremia (also called water intoxication) doesn’t usually happen to healthy young people, but athletes taking in a lot of water in a short period of time run a high risk. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that “hyponatremia occurs in a substantial fraction of non-elite marathon runners and can be severe.”

Athletes competing for hours at a time, especially in the summer heat tend to drink way more than they need, throwing their sodium levels off and creating a big problem. Without enough sodium to regulate fluid levels, the excess water seeps into the cells and causes swelling. When that swelling gets to your brain you need to seek immediate medical help, doctors can reduce swelling using salt water.

Another tricky part of hyponatremia is the list of symptoms and that’s because they mirror symptoms of heat stroke. With hyponatremia, you can be hot, sweaty, you might have a headache and sometimes there is nausea and vomiting—all things you might see in someone suffering from heatstroke. The major way to tell the difference is to know how much water you’ve had.

The best way to avoid over-hydrating, though, is simply to drink when you’re thirsty. If you're getting ready for a fitness event or an intense training session you can increase your fluid intake slightly and start the day before.

"In the final 48 hours before events and big training sessions we advise a lot of athletes to increase their fluid intake by an extra 500-750 ml or so on top of their normal intake with some extra sodium in it to help the body absorb more of this additional fluid without diluting the blood," says Blow.

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