At present there are no definite answers. There are contributory factors which play a role in producing allergy. We may mention a few:
The “immune response genes” with which we are born have properties that determine the resistance of the body to disease. The real job of the immune system is to recognise and destroy infecting agents such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, toxins,etc. that get into the body. Substances in the blood, called antibodies, are produced. These defend the body from attack of pathogenic organisms.. Sometimes an abnormal type of antibody is produced that reacts to certain foreign substances called allergens (such as spores, pollens and foods).
The combination of these antibodies with allergen gives rise to allergic symptoms. This weakness may account for the handing down of mother-daughter susceptibility. There are individuals born with a fixed allergy to one or more specific food, something as ordinary as Cow’s milk or as exotic as black pepper. They will never be able to tolerate these items; it will affect them right through their lives.
Many a time food allergy is primarily due to damage to the immune system caused, above all, by harmful chemicals, present in the air, in the soil, in the water and medically prescribed drugs. These are absorbed in the individual systems which then alters and distorts the body and the way it functions. Pollution also causes perversion of appetite. This is what causes certain persons to eat abnormally. There is no accurate awareness of hunger or satisfaction of hunger.
A much larger group develop allergies, perhaps as a result of eating (drinking) whatever it is in unusually large quantities.
The question is: Do they become allergic because they eat (drink) excessive amounts? Or do they eat (drink) excessive Amounts? Or do they eat (drink) excessive amounts because they are allergic (addicted)?
Some doctors consider that human beings are basically designed to eat primitive “stone age’ diet,
Essentially meat, fish, vegetables, fruits and nuts. They are only partially (and in individual cases not at all) adapted to later farm foods such as grains and dairy products.
Immuno deficiency can also be due to malnutrition. You may be taking enough food, in terms
Of calories, but they are deficient in vitamins, micronutrients, enzymes and fibres. Patients are often selectively nutrient deficient. The vitamin B biotin for instance seems consistently Inadequately consumed in daily food supplies. Biotin is lacking in empty calorie prepared meals, Food prepared from refined white sugar, white flour bread, fried food. And junk food like preserved Foods available in fast food restaurants, ice creams, cold drinks, sweets, etc. Eating foods such as Brown rice, soyabeans, egg yolk (rich in biotin) will help avoid allergy.
The unfortunate, wholesale use of antibiotics even for little infections among children and adults has negative consequences, not immediately obvious.
People often develop an irritable bowel syndrome after a bout of gastroenteritis for which a repeated course of antibiotics has been used. A long-term use of steroids as in the case of arthritis or prolonged use of birth control pills may give rise to allergy. These all help changes in the bacteria living in the intestine. It seems possible that these bacteria are responsible for breaking down of remnants to produce chemicals and help even undigested food to reach directly in the blood circulation and hamper the liver function which is responsible for many allergic reactions.
There are quite a few bacteria friendly and non-friendly which inhabit inside the guts. Friendly Bacteria are lactobacillus acidophilus and lactobacillus bifidus and unfriendly bacteria like coli and a fungus called candida albicans. Friendly bacteria keep in check the growth of unfriendly bacteria and fungus. They live in a state of symbiosis. It is like a society where good and bad elements are always there. The society remains peaceful and everything moves in harmony.
What will happen if the good elements are removed or remarkably reduced. Society will become violent, bad elements will flourish and make life miserable. Antibiotics do not differentiate between the several bacteria and they go on killing indiscriminately all bacterias good or bad.
When good bacterias are killed there is no competition between separate members (good and bad) of the resident flora of the human gut, the fungus candida albicans which remains unaffected by antibiotics starts proliferating. They develop germ tubes, hyphae formation when enough nutrition is not there in the gut. At the tip of Hyphae, an rupting human cell membranes. They produce skin eruption, gut wall distress and local Inflammation.
Candida infection is capable of entering the body through our existing nine or ten holes, seven at the top and two (male) or three (female) at the bottom. The yeast syndrome is actually an old disease that has now been making its appearance. It is predominant in industrialized nations. It is a major health crisis of the 1980s. Furthermore, parents mistakingly feed it: food derived from an entirely different animal – the cow. The cow’s milk is good for the calves but unfavourable for human consumption. Lactobacilli acidophilus is the friendly bacteria, which ordinarily keeps yeast from invading further up the intestine. The more the cow’s milk our young universe is given to drink the more harmful candida will thrive.
This is why children who are started early on cow’s milk, say at the age of 4 months, may develop chronic diarrhoea which is only controlled when the child takes mainly solid food at the age of 2 years. Mother’s milk is healthier and it gives immunity to the child against candida and other unfriendly bacteria. Allergy existed among a large number of literary and historical figures. So if you are allergic to foods and chemicals you may take consolation in the fact that you are in good company. Charles Ddarwin and Lady Hamilton – among others, are known to have been similarly affected.