What’s it mean to be allergic ?

You’re so lucky! Did you know you’ve got a permanent personal bodyguard?

It’s your immune system. A real microscopic army who protects your body from intruders, like viruses or bacteria.

When something undesirable enters your body, it’s war! Your immune system surrounds it, contains it and destroys it.

But sometimes, it attacks things that aren’t dangerous at all, such as pollen or certain foods… That’s an allergy!

So how do we become allergic?

Your immune system changes. It may decide that a grain of pollen, which til now, was perfectly alright in your nose…

… Has become totally unacceptable! Then does everything to get rid of it and uses the same means as for fighting a cold:

Your nose runs, you sneeze, your eyes sting etc. Powerful weapons to fight a ridiculous enemy.

What’s more, you can be allergic to different things like foods, animals, beauty products. We call them allergens.

The reactions can be very dangerous. Certain people nearly die if they eat a single peanut!

Fortunately, sometimes, some allergies just disappear as quick as they came…

… And doctors can give micro doses of allergens to be taken every day so that your immune system gets used to them.

So stop saying that you’re really super allergic to spinach; you might have to eat it every day!