International Nutrition Consultant Association

Defining allergies

We hear the word "allergy" almost on a daily basis. Most of us suffer from one or more types of allergies. And everyone has suffered from an allergy at one point in their lives. In fact, we cannot escape having an allergy. And in certain respects, this is a beneficial process. Why is it beneficial to have a terrible stuffy, or runny nose, itchy eyes, etc?

Well, of course it's frustrating to experience these annoying symptoms, and they can easily turn what is a seemingly pleasant day for others, into a terrible day for the allergy sufferer. Allergies, however, are an important component of our immune system. The immune system is an elaborate collection of cells and their chemical products that patrol the body, searching for foreign substances and potential threats. The cells and their chemical products are aimed at destroying these potential threats to our health.

What threatens us continuously?

We are constantly bombarded with threats to our health. In our own gastro intestinal tract for example, large numbers of bacteria reside. The different species of bacteria residing in the GI tract form part of our normal flora. The bacteria of our normal GI flora function in helping to digest foodstuffs, competing and inhibiting other more virulent microorganisms from harming us, and they even synthesize small amounts of vitamins. However, they don't do all this work for nothing. They have merely formed a relationship with us, because we are supplying them with food. They stay there because we eat, and the food ultimately ends up in the intestines, where they reside. But are bacteria content with just the food we eat? Of course not. They divide and multiply and will always take the opportunity to invade new areas as a source of nutrition. Keep in mind that our skin, even in our intestines is a potential food source. Bacteria will feed on whatever they can.

Bacteria sometimes escape from the intestine and find their way into the liver and other areas of the body. This is a potential threat because technically, blood in the bactera is what we call septicaemia (septicemia), or blood poisoning (with microorganisms). The immune system is what helps to halt this invasion of bacteria into other areas of the body other than the intestines. The immune system recognizes any bacteria as foreign and immediately attacks them in several ways. Component cells of the immune system engulf the bacteria. This obviously gets rid of the threat. However, the immune system goes much futher than this to protect the body against future encounters with this same species of microorganism. The cells of the immune system digest this engulfed bacteria, process it, and form a "memory" of it, in the event that similar bacteria are encountered. Therefore, we can see that the immune system has what we refer to as "immune membory". This is the basis for immunisations as well. We introduce a small amount of weakened microbes into the body and the immune system remembers what to look out for in the future. This helps to prevent infections from "taking seat" or becoming deeply rooted. The object of the immune system in regards to infection is to react quickly and efficiently. If it didn't we would die very quickly, for bacteria can digest a complete body in as little as a few days, as we see in death. If you've ever observed a decaying animal in the woods, on the grass, etc, this is microbrganisms in action. They can digest an animal carcass down to the bone in as little as a few days. Believe it or not, bacteria would do the same to us, if we were to allow them to. Our immune system is what keeps these little "beasties" in check. When they escape our intestines, they find their way into the liver and more rarely, other places. The immune system quickly eradicates them, before they multiply and cause tissue destruction. We can sometimes see the failure of the immune system, when we are overwhelmed by an infection and have to seek medical treatment, whereby antibiotics against these microorgansms are administered. Fortunately, the immune system is effective against many of the threats. But there many occasions when the immune system is not effective, resulting in the establishment of chronic, unresolved, or long-term infections. The immune system can also mistakenly react against the body itself! This is called "autoimmune" and can cause what we refer to as the "autoimmune diseases". Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis MS and other types of illness can be autoimmune in origin. We shall discuss each of these concepts.

Allergies to non-threatening things

We can see that the immune system is essential, helping to recognize foreign organisms, but the immune system has a much larger job than most imagine. The immune system also must be capable of recognizing foreign chemicals, particles, substances, etc. There are millions of different things that the immune system must be able to "weed out" or decide if it is a threat or merely a harmless substance like pollen. The immune system must also not react against itself, or any of the tissues in the body. This, is total, is a very large task. Forming a memory of each substance that the immune system encompasses a very large "theoretical database". But we fail to think of how much "good" the immune system does when we wake up with a stuffy, runny nose, or sore throat and cough. This too is the result of the immune system. Sometimes it reacts against things that are not harmful, such as pollen, dust, animal dander, etc. These are the times when we wish that we could simply shut off the immune system. If we did this however, we would immediately be attacked by microorganisms from our own flora as well as most other "unseen" microbes present on just about every countertop, floor, and surface of everything that we come into contact with. The microscopic world is an invisible, but cruel world in many respects. And the immune system has to work as an automaton, without "sympathies" regarding stuffy noses, etc. The immune system does this to keep us, and "itself" alive. I've always wondered if we keep ourselves healthy to keep the immune system healthy in order to benefit ourselves, or rather does the immune system keep us healthy, in order to keep itself healthy. Probably a bit of both. In any event, and all philosophies aside, there are ways to keep healthy and not suffer with allergies to the degree most of us do. How do we accomplish this? Click on the links below and read on.......