AIM: What are allergies?

1. AIM: What are allergies? When a pathogen enter your body, your white blood cells make antibodies that match the shape of the pathogen’s antigens. Do Now: What is the relationship of antibodies and antigens to each other, your body, and pathogens.

2. Popular allergies • Foods milk, eggs, peanuts, soy, wheat, tree nuts (such as walnuts and cashews), fish, shellfish (such as shrimp) • Insect bites and stings. • Airborne particles • Medicines (penicillin) • Chemicals (detergents, dyes)

3. What are allergies? • Your immune system reacts to the allergen as if it were an invading pathogen • Antibodies are produced that attach to allergens, while white blood cells attack. • Histamine is part of the inflammatory response. It is what causes the running nose, sneezing and other allergy symptoms.

4. Allergy is a malfunction of the immune system. • Your white blood cells create antibodies that match the shape of the allergen. • You body has memory cells that create the antibody whenever you encounter this allergen.

5. Why do people have allergies? • Both genes and the environment have something to do with it. Normally, your immune system fights pathogens. It is your body's defense system. In most allergic reactions, however, it is responding to a false alarm.

6. Anaphylaxis • A severe allergic reaction • Signs of anaphylaxis include difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing, swelling of the lips, tongue, and throat or other parts of the body, and dizziness or loss of consciousness.

7. How do we treat allergies? • Antihistamines • Topical nasal steroids • Decongestants • Immunotherapy (allergy shots)

8. QUESTIONS • The immune system attacks the allergen because it is foreign. • Antihistamines are able to block the histamine receptor because it mimics histamine’s shape. • Genes and environment • Immune system is overreacting to a something that is not a pathogen. • Vaccine would cause an allergic reaction because it contain the substance