Allergies seem to be a part of everyday life for so many people nowadays.
We are all becoming increasingly aware of allergies and the impact that they can have on our everyday lives. Pollen counts are now part of our news bulletins, 'hypoallergenic products' fill the supermarket shelves and we all know someone with an allergy, whether it's asthma, hay fever or one of the many other allergies. Yet not so long ago, these diseases were considered unusual. Back in the 1900s, hay fever and asthma probably affected less than 0.5 per cent of us. The allergic process Our body's immune system is specially geared up to protect us against anything it considers to be foreign, such as bacteria and viruses, which it sees as 'attacking' our bodies.