U.S. Health Watch

Allergies affect approximately 60 million Americans, which means one in every five adults or children suffer from them, and are common in men as well as in women. Thirty-five million people have upper respiratory symptoms, which are allergic reactions to airborne pollen. Around 10 million Americans have allergies to cats and two million present severe reactions to various insect stings.

Food allergies are less common in the family of allergies. About one out of three people pretend to have a food allergy and only about three to eight percent of children younger than three years old, and only one percent of adults really have an allergic reactions to food. Unfortunately, food allergies are blamed for close to 200 deaths every year. Scientists say that allergies have to do with genetics. If one parent has allergies, there are 33% chances that each child will suffer from a form of allergy. If both parents are allergic, it is very much possible (seven cases out of 10) that their children will be allergic, too. If we are to discuss about allergies, we should have in view the fact that allergies usually stay with adults, while children sometimes outgrow them.

An allergy is in fact the response of your body to something that it perceives as a threat. Your body fights the allergen in the same way it would fight a virus or a bacterial infection. We can take as an example the pollens of some plants that are small and light and can be taken away by the winds for miles. Ragweed pollen has been found 400 miles out at sea and two miles up in the atmosphere.