Achoo! Part two: Even more allergies

Key Takeaways

• Allergies tend to be hereditary.
• Some allergies can be outgrown, and some can develop later in life.
• There are three main reactions to bee-sting allergies: large local reaction, full body skin reaction, and anaphylaxis.
• Anaphylaxis requires immediate attention.

In part one of this series, Dr. Hassan Ramadan discussed seasonal allergies and how to treat them.

This time, we’re going to dive into allergies a little deeper.

Allergies are very complex, and they’re not the same person to person or condition to condition. There are a lot of nuances to them. Those are the kind of things to discuss with your allergist or even your primary care provider to go through what would be best for you.

Can allergies be hereditary?

Allergies tend to be hereditary. Individual allergies sometimes come with a tiny increased risk for having the same kind of allergy, but generally, it’s more that the chance for allergies and allergic-like conditions tends to run in families.

For example, if your mother has a seafood allergy, you’re more likely to have any kind of allergy rather than specifically having a seafood allergy, but there can be tiny increases in risk.

Can you grow out of allergies?

Absolutely. There are some allergies you’re more likely to grow out of, like kids with an egg or a milk allergy will probably grow out of them. Whereas kids with a tree nut allergy are less likely to but still can.

Can you develop allergies later in life?

Generally, allergies tend to get a little less frequent with age, but not always. And there is a bit of an increase in middle adult years. And so, you can develop an allergy at any time.

What about bee-sting allergies?

There are three main reactions to bee stings. You can have what’s called a large local reaction where you swell up around the sting. And that can be a very bad reaction to the point where the whole limb is involved, but it’s not a full body reaction.

You can also have a full body skin reaction, where you develop hives everywhere, but you don't have what’s called anaphylaxis.

Anaphylaxis occurs when you have some sort of internal organ involvement, like trouble breathing from the chest; throat swelling; drops in blood pressure, including passing out; and often hives, but not always.

Those are the three main reactions. For the large local reactions and the full body skin reactions, certainly it’s good to be seen by a doctor, but it’s not as emergent.

If there’s any concern for anaphylaxis, though, you should be seen immediately.

What should I do if I’m experiencing a severe allergic reaction?

If you’re having what you think is a severe allergic reaction, you should seek medical attention. There really isn’t anything besides epinephrine. If you have an EpiPen or the new nasal spray, then certainly you could use that, and you should use that if you have what we call anaphylaxis. That is the only thing that truly treats it.

If you have Benadryl^®, Zyrtec^®, or Claritin^®, you absolutely can take those. But you should not delay going to the hospital or getting other medical treatment because they will not treat anaphylaxis.

At what point should I be tested for allergies?

Allergy testing is not perfect. You can have false positives and negatives. We have to be careful with our allergy testing because you can cause all kinds of problems if you test inappropriately.

It really varies a lot based on the condition. For the most part, you will know if you have food allergies. They’re generally not subtle. They’re pretty obvious and pretty quick. But, there are exceptions to that rule.

With food allergies, if there’s a specific allergen, you usually want to test it.

For example, if you eat peanuts and break out in hives, we’re usually going to allergy test to the peanut. But we try not to allergy test to other foods because we can get false positives and negatives.

There are nuanced cases for other things like drug allergies and other medical conditions, but for the most part, that’s kind of the gist of it.

Getting started

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