Allergies Allergies - Primary and Secondary Allergies are a modern plague. Even babies and toddlers are suffering. Allergies cut across all lines of age, location, social status, and ethnic background. A person is allergic to something when a stimulus that is neutral for others creates a strong defensive reaction in that person. Harmless substances, like pollen, dust, or animal hair, or chemicals and medications, can trigger a major response in sometimes very small doses.
Allergies can result from an overloaded, compromised immune system.
Some allergies may be genetically predisposed. Exposure to environmental toxins, poor nutrition, stress, age, can all do their damage to the immune system and make allergies more likely. It is quite possible that science will never sort out all the complexities of the human immune system. Primary allergies are characterized by the quick onset of clearly-defined symptoms like rashes, swelling, runny nose, asthma attacks, usually developing within a few minutes but sometimes within an hour or two. Sometimes a minor exposure can provoke an enormous, even life-threatening, response.