Allergy is a sensitivity to allergens. These cause an allergic disease when eaten or inhaled or by direct contact.

Are There Any Dormant Illnesses Awakened by Allergy?

There are a number of nervous ailments that become more obvious when a person has a basic allergic constitution. These are functional disorders, behavior problems, psychoneuroses, anxiety states, depression, headaches, stomachaches, bladder and visual disturbances, low-grade fever, pallor, fatigue, circles under the eyes, and sweating. The treatment of the allergy must precede the treatment of the nervous illness.

How Many Children Develop Allergies?

The prevalence of allergy among the child population of the United States is about 50 percent, if we consider the word allergy to pertain to atopic disease, contact dermatitis, and drug sensitivity. However, statistics show that only 35 million people in this country are actively sick with hay fever, asthma, or eczema, the main diseases treated by allergists.

Is Allergy a Family Disease?

A child may be born with an allergic tendency which he inherits from his father, his mother, or both. If both parents have allergies, his chances of developing an allergy are about 70 percent; if only one of his parents is allergic, his chances are about 30 percent; and if neither one of his parents is allergic, he still has a 10 percent chance of developing an allergy. Intermarriage has made all the inhabitants of the world potential carriers of the allergy gene to some extent; anyone may develop an allergy if exposed long enough to powerful allergens beyond his tolerance level to them. This level varies from person to person and within the same person from time to time. It is called his “allergic threshold,” and it consists of the combined effects of all the allergic reactions taking place within him at any one time. For example, a child who is slightly allergic to cantaloupe and does not have symptoms when he eats it, may have them in the presence of an animal to which he may also be slightly allergic.

Is There a Pattern to the Development of Allergies?

Although there are many exceptions to this rule, an atopic child usually develops eczema during his first year, allergic rhinitis in the second or third year, asthma and its complications later on.

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Some patients treated in this way have recovered sufficiently to be able to walk again, when previously they had been confined to a wheelchair. However, it is very difficult to know if these improvements have anything to do with the treatment, because MS is characterized by natural periods of remission anyway. As yet, there is no hard evidence that these measures make any difference in MS.

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