[Sca-cooks] allergies vs. sensitivities

[Phlip]

Ene bichizh ogsen baina shuu...

> So medically, what is the difference between having an allergy to
> something and having a sensitivity to it? Just a matter of the severity
> of the symptoms or something else?
>
> Stefan

An allergy is a specific set of physiological reactions to a substance,
involving the immune system and its response.

A sensitivity may make the person feel bad, but generally isn't life
threatening, as allergies can be.

People use the two words interchangeably because they don't understand the
difference- they just know whatever it is will make them feel bad. As a
general rule, a sensitivity will get better over time with exposure, but an
allergy will get worse.

Using wool as an example, if you're developing an allergy to it, at first
contact with it might redden your skin a bit, then give you hives, then
respiratory problems, getting progessively worse each time you're exposed,
until the histamine reaction will actually get bad enough to close your
breathing passages.

If you have a sensitivity to it, it will feel scratchy, and you may not want
to wear it because it makes you itch, but if for some reason, you're forced
to wear it, over time, the symptoms will get milder and milder until they go
away.

Or a food allergy- say a particular foodstuff gives you gas and diarrhea. If
you're sensitive to it, the symptoms will diminish over time and
consumption. If you're allergic, again, the histamine reactions will kick
in, starting with swelling and redness, progressing to hives, and ultimately
closing off your air passages. As we say in the Chirurgeonate, "Air goes in
and out, blood goes round and round. Anything else is not a good thing".

One of the major differences is that you'll be sensitive to something the
very first exposure, but an allergic reaction requires an original,
non-symptomatic exposure, to trigger your immune system. Unfortunately,
nowadays, we're exposed to so much stuff, so often, that it's hard to use
that as a point of differentiation.

Another way to tell, is that someone with actual, real, allergies will tend
to have several of them, increasing over time, because the problem, at base,
is the immune system's progressive reaction to the material- usually a
protein. Someone with sensitivities may have several, too, but again, over
time, they'll diminish.

Kids are a whole new ball game. A kid may have numerous allergies, or no
allergies, before puberty, and switch entirely through and after the
physiological changes that occur during puberty- it's a matter of the effect
their hormones will have on their entire physiology- puberty causes a
tremendous number of changes as a body transforms from essentially a sexless
child, to a reproducing adult.

Bottom line is, if you suspect an allergy, OR a sensitivity, see an
allergist, an MD or DO whose specialty is determining and treating
allergies. He or she can determine exactly what your problem is, and give
you strategies and medications for dealing with it- including epi pens,
which will allow you to survive an acute allergic reaction, long enough to
still be alive when you get to the hospital.

Still trying to get to Pennsic,

Saint Phlip,
CoD

"When in doubt, heat it up and hit it with a hammer."
 Blacksmith's credo.

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably not a
cat.

Never a horse that cain't be rode,
And never a rider who cain't be throwed....