About the Immune System & Allergies

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. David Hill, and today we're going to be talking about allergies and the immune system. Now, this is a topic to which people have dedicated entire careers, so we're not going to be able to get to a complete depth on it today, but we should touch on it because allergies in whatever form they occur are an immune mediated condition. The part of your immune system that causes allergies seem to evolve originally to fight off parasites, like intestinal worms or amoebas. The problem in modern society is that part of the immune system seems to get bored and finding out nothing else to do, it attacks things that aren't trying to harm us like pollen or pet dander. Allergies are immune reactions that are...can occur in many different parts of the bodies. We're all familiar with allergies in the nose. It usually causes itching and sneezing, runny nose and congestion. You can get similar symptoms in the eyes. Again, with watery eyes, with puffy eyelids, injected or red eyes. And again, itching. You're going to notice a common theme here because you can also get allergies in your skin that causes -- you guessed it -- itching. Sometimes large bumps called hives, some people call them welts. And that's a form of an allergy called urticaria. You can also get allergy in your lungs, which causes asthma. And again, there's swelling. If lungs could itch, they probably would. There's increased fluid, there's reactivity in tightening of the bronchulus, which causes wheezing. You can get allergies in your intestine. This usually affects children, but it can affect older people as well, and that may cause diarrhea, vomiting, upset stomach, or stomach pain. All of these are mediated by the same parts of the immune system. The IGE, which is an immunoglobulin, which floats around your blood looking for things to fight off. And the mast cells, which are cells that run around in your blood, again, trying to find things that it thinks are threats and fight them. Now, there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of different portions of the immune system that are involved in the cascade that leads from these things to the symptoms of allergies. But just knowing where they can occur and how they can occur and that the immune system is involved is a really good start. That'll give you a start on understanding how the allergy medicines work, all of which have some impact or another on turning down these hyperactive parts of the immune system. Talking about allergies and your immune system, I'm Dr. David Hill."