Cross allergy is a type, or rather, a property of a common allergy. As you know, many stimuli have their counterparts. For example, if one allergen causes any negative reactions in a person, then it is likely that their existing double or even a group consisting of them will provoke them.
The essence of the relationship
Cross allergy occurs due to the similarity of the structure of allergens in a set of amino acids. To understand how such a deviation manifests itself in real life, consider an example.
A person is allergic to dust. But once he observes similar negative reactions in himself after eating shrimp. Thus, he exhibits a cross- food allergy similar to that caused by ordinary house dust. So why is this phenomenon possible? The fact is that the body of this person simply confused the dust and shrimp cells because of their incredible similarity. The complexity of these situations is that it is far from always possible to find out what is a double allergen of a pathogen already familiar to you. However, the most common such relationships have already been calculated. Thanks to them, a special cross-allergy table was compiled. Consider some of its parts in more detail.
Pollen allergy
As a rule, such a cross allergy makes itself felt in the spring-summer season, when there is an active flowering of various plants and herbs. So, let's look at the double-allergens of ordinary pollen.
- Cross-allergy to birch (leaves, buds), as well as to pollen from alder, hazel, apple and alder cones.
- Pollen intolerance to all cereal grasses and food grains (oats, barley, wheat, etc.).
- Cross-allergy to wormwood, sunflower, dahlias, daisies, dandelions, calendula, elecampane, series, coltsfoot.
Food Allergy - Food Pollen Doubles
Cross-allergy to birch and other plants can occur periodically if a person develops a negative reaction after contact with ordinary pollen. But this deviation extends not only to grasses and trees. After all, such a person often has an allergy to spores of fungi, as well as some types of food. The biggest mistake of patients is that very often, because of their ignorance, they do not bind these seemingly distant allergens to each other.
- An allergy to pollen from birch, hazel and alder crosses an allergy to hazelnuts, apricots, almonds, cherries, peaches, potatoes, kiwi fruits and celery.
- Wormwood pollen - potatoes, red peppers, celery, chamomile, fennel, dill, caraway seeds, coriander, as well as all drinks that include this plant (vermouth and balms).
- Sunflower pollen - halva, sunflower oil, mustard and mayonnaise.
- The ragweed pollen is banana, melon.
- Grass pollen - tomatoes, peanuts and melon.
- Fragrant herbs - celery, various spices.
- Latex - potatoes, banana, papaya, pineapple, avocado, chestnut, tomatoes, figs, spinach.
- Pollen of weed meadow grasses - flower honey.
Food allergens and their counterparts
What types of allergies are you aware of? Food, vegetable, medicinal, etc. But this division is only conditional. After all, a person often has only one of the above deviations, and the rest are all varieties of cross-reactions.
Thus, if the patient is allergic to any food product, then often he cannot use those ingredients, which contain even a small fraction of similar irritants.
- If a person is allergic to cow's milk, then, most likely, the same negative reactions will manifest himself as a result of consumption of products containing his proteins, as well as goat's milk, beef, veal and meat products from them, enzyme preparations made based on the pancreas of cattle, as well as after contact with cow hair.
- Kefir or kefir yeast - yeast dough, mold fungi, penicillin antibiotics, mold varieties of cheese, kvass and ordinary mushrooms.
- Sea and river fish - seafood (shrimp, crabs, mussels, caviar, lobsters, spiny lobsters, etc.), as well as fish food.
- Chicken eggs - duck meat, chicken stock and chicken, quail eggs, sauces, creams, mayonnaise, feather pillows, etc.
- Carrots - Vitamin A, celery, parsley and beta-carotene.
- Strawberries - lingonberries, raspberries, currants and blackberries.
- Apples - pear, peach, quince and plum.
- Potatoes - tomatoes, eggplant, green and red chilli peppers, tobacco and paprika.
- Nuts - rice flour, kiwi, sesame, mango, poppy, buckwheat and oatmeal.
- Peanuts - soybeans, green peas, bananas, tomatoes, stone fruits and berries.
- Bananas are melon, wheat gluten, latex, kiwi and avocado.
- Tangerines - grapefruit, orange and lemon.
- Red beets - white beets, sugar and spinach.
- Legumes - mango, peanuts, beans, soy, lentils and peas.
- Plum - apples, almonds, nectarines, apricots, cherries, cherries, prunes, peaches, etc.
- Kiwi - nuts, bananas, avocados, sesame seeds, flour (buckwheat, rice, oatmeal), cereals, etc.
Drug allergy
If the patient is allergic to any drug, then most likely, negative phenomena will arise in him after the use of other medicines, which also contain a well-known irritant.
It should be noted that drug allergy is the most common among all others. And they attribute this to the fact that in the manufacture of medicines very often use synthetic components that are not perceived by the human body.
- The drug "Penicillin" - all its derivatives.
- Medication "Levomycetin" - all its derivatives, including the tool "Syntomycin", as well as their antiseptic solutions.
- Sulfanilamides (for example, Biseptol medication) - drugs Novocain, Anestezin, Trimekain, Dikain, etc.
- The drug "Streptomycin" - all its derivatives and aminoglycosides.
- The medicine "Tetracycline" - means "Metacyclin", "Rondomycin", "Morphocycline", "Oleomorphocycline", "Glycocycline", etc.
Symptoms of Cross Allergy
As a rule, cross-allergy in adults and children does not proceed unnoticed. Its manifestations are very similar to the signs of a common allergy. Such symptoms include rhinitis, lacrimation, itching and burning on the skin, swelling of the mucous membranes, bronchial asthma, urticaria, dermatitis, etc.
Diagnostics
Cross-allergies can be diagnosed with molecular studies. So, using special equipment, doctors reveal a person’s reaction not to any product or plant, but to a specific protein that is part of them. In this way, the existing doubles are determined.
How to treat cross allergies?
Cross-allergy therapy is practically no different from conventional treatment. The difference between them is only that before the start of all necessary measures, the main allergen should be identified, which gives an impetus to everyone else.
During the treatment of this type of disease, the main ones are antihistamines. Those that give the best effect include the following medications: Claritin, Zertek, Cetrin, Erius, etc. The main advantage of these drugs is that they never have a negative effect on the central nervous system, as well as practically have no side effects. Although in some cases the patient may experience drowsiness, dry mouth, constipation, urinary retention, etc.
As practice shows, it takes about one week to eliminate the manifest allergic reactions. In more complex cases, doctors recommend taking these drugs for several months.
Cross Allergy Prevention
What preventive measures to take to prevent the occurrence of cross-allergy depends only on the primary pathogen. For example, if a person has regular allergic reactions to pollen, when various plants and herbs bloom, it is recommended to avoid the places where they grow.
It should also be noted that wearing gauze dressings and sunglasses will protect the human mucous membranes from possible irritation. In addition, wet cleaning of the house and thorough personal hygiene will help to minimize the number of possible exposure to allergens.
The use of antihistamines is also a reliable way to prevent allergies, including cross.
If the patient has a food allergy, then his usual menu should be well thought out. Thus, a person should exclude from his diet all probable irritant products.
In addition, in order to avoid manifestations of allergic reactions, the patient is advised to purchase only those cosmetics on the packaging of which is marked “hypoallergenic”.