Is it Possible to Outgrow Allergies?
People with allergies often develop them during childhood or while infants. However, it is not uncommon for people to lose pet allergies, food allergies or hay fever as they grow older.
Doctors are not sure why or how this is possible, but it is an undeniable fact that some people’s allergies tend to fade and even disappear over time. If the allergies don’t disappear completely over time then they tend to change significantly.
Most people suffer from different reactions caused by various types of allergens, but the allergic reactions can differ greatly even within the same person. For example, a neighbour’s cat could provoke a sneezing fit, while another feline wouldn’t.
Generally speaking, doctors have discovered the main reasons why allergies exist. They are caused by our immune system overreacting to a completely harmless substance. When our body is functioning properly, our defenses in the immune system are fighting off foreign invaders, i.e. viruses.
With allergies, the human immune system is misinterpreting pet dander, pollen or certain foods as invaders, which results in the body building up molecules named immunoglobulin E (IgE) which fight those invaders, providing defense to the body.
In cases regarding allergies that have disappeared over time, experts are theorizing that some individuals could actually grow out of their allergies due to their bodies becoming accustomed to the previously intolerable allergen and in the same time reducing the overall sensitivity of the immune system.
Growing accustomed to some allergens has been mostly prominent among food allergies, where doctors often suggest low level exposure to the allergen, slowly promoting tolerance in one’s body which should gradually increase.
Nut allergies have been considered a lifetime type of allergy by the physicians, especially peanut allergies. But recent studies from the last decade have shown that as many as 20% of children with peanut allergies have the ability to overcome the sensitivity.
It is even possible to determine the child’s chances to overcome the food allergies by having doctors run allergy blood tests, where they can read the lgE levels – an important sign of immune system sensitivity. Food allergies and reactions are still quite a mystery though, as they can come back just as easily as they have disappeared. Pet dander, pollen and other allergies have been known to recur, too.
