How We Can Deal With An Overly Exaggerated Allergic Response
We’d first need to understand the underlying mechanisms behind how that allergic reaction develops.
Springtime is associated with the end of the cold weather in most temperate countries. Animals come out to play, and flowers start to bloom again.
Unfortunately, some people living in temperate countries tend to be highly susceptible to hay fever symptoms when it comes around to springtime.
The sneezes. The teary eyes. The annoyances of not really feeling unwell, but knowing that there’s something wrong that they can’t pinpoint as yet.
The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic further amplifies the uncertainty in one’s mind. How can they be sure if they are experiencing hay fever symptoms or exhibiting symptoms associated with a COVID-19 infection?
We all know that hay fever is an allergic reaction to the pollen produced as flowers bud. They tickle our noses, which then result in the symptoms of incessant sneezing and teary eyes, at the very least. We know that histamines are responsible for that, and antihistamine drugs provide some form of relief against those symptoms.
But the question is, how does it all happen?
The allergic reaction is an immune system response.
As we know it, an allergic reaction is the effect of excessive histamine production in the body.
These histamines can bind to histamine receptors located in different parts of the body. Histamine receptors in our nose signal the nose to produce excessive amounts of mucus (hypersecretion).
The production rate of histamines is governed by the activity of mast cells in the body. These cells contain many granules that are rich in histamines and interleukin cytokines.
When a triggering allergen binds to the Immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies present on the mast cell surface, the mast cell releases its payload of histamines and interleukins to set off the allergic reaction.
However, even before that happens, we see increased activity in the IgE-producing B cells, which stem from increased activity of the T helper 2 (Th2) cells.
Certain interleukins released by the mast cell payload also trigger the B cells to produce more IgE for a more pronounced allergic reaction the next time around. It’s a vicious positive feedback amplification loop that we’re looking at here.
And that is why some people can have such severe allergic reactions to certain stimulants that they can go into anaphylactic shock — the degranulation and the release of the histamine/cytokine payload are way in excess of what is considered a “normal” response.
Our T helper (Th) cells are immune cells that operate in a balanced, finite population. These Th cells are responsible for producing cytokines that signal immune responses to viruses, bacteria, or fungi.
When a new Th cell is synthesized, it is considered a naive (undifferentiated) Th cell, which then differentiates into specific Th cell subsets when a stimulus is provided for them to differentiate.
In our immune responses, there are 4 major types of Th cells:
1. Th1, which deals with bacterial and viral invasions.
2. Th2, which deals with parasite invasions.
3. Th17, which deals with fungal invasions.
4. Treg, which balances out the signaling intensity from Th1, Th2, and Th17.
An imbalance of these Th cells would spell trouble, especially when elevated Th2 cell activity contributes to allergic reactions and elevated Th17 activity contributes to autoimmune disorders.
The main problem lies in the quantity of the signaling cytokines that the Th cell populations are producing. Treg cells produce cytokines that help mitigate cytokine signaling intensity from the Th1, Th2, and Th17 cells.
What do we have to be concerned about when we’re exhibiting allergic reactions?
The key is to understand that allergies can come from many different sources, but how our immune system responds to these allergens is another story together. For the response, we need to examine the activity of the cells involved in expressing the cytokine signallers and work out a solution from there. If the response is suboptimal, what else can develop in due time?
I also do highlight that our gut microbiome influences Th cell activity. Meaning that one with digestive health issues, including constipation, small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), too much antibiotic treatment, or living off a pretty poor quality diet in terms of nutrition may be more susceptible to developing allergies as they grow older.
Also, it is important to note that constant irritation and allergic reactions, such as skin eczema, will result in a chronically elevated release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. These can have a bearing on the development of chronic inflammatory disorders down the line.
For example, we do have the release of interleukin 1-beta (IL-1β) cytokines in an allergic inflammatory reaction. This paper states that:
In autoinflammatory as well as allergic diseases such as contact hypersensitivity, atopic dermatitis and bronchial asthma, dysfunctional inflammasome processing has been demonstrated to account for IL-1β-induced inflammation. IL-1-neutralizing drugs have been shown to completely suppress or markedly reduce inflammatory responses in clinical studies and experimental models of urticarial autoinflammatory diseases as well as common allergic disorders.
And, of course, excessive levels of IL-1β cytokines in our blood can result in the development of further health problems in our lives.
For example, excessive amounts of IL-1β in our blood can contribute to the equilibrium between bone mineral formation and bone mineral dissolution to favor dissolution, leading to osteoporosis in due time.
Excessive amounts of IL-1β in our blood can also cause similar problems with the equilibrium between joint cartilage formation and joint cartilage degradation to favor degradation; hence there is also a higher risk of osteoarthritis that is possible.
We may not necessarily feel those effects now as we’re sneezing through hay fevers. Still, the risks of developing degenerative diseases as a result of our body’s immune system being unable to regulate the production of these pro-inflammatory cytokines would be problematic in the future!
Dealing with the allergic reaction…
It requires a multi-pronged approach. The key parts to take note of are:
- Is our gut microbiome functioning optimally? We might need to change up our diet to improve its functionality.
- Is our immune system over-reacting to various stimuli? We might need to re-condition the inflammatory response that the immune system is giving off. Again, that points back to our diet, sleep quality, exercise frequency, intensity, and stress management. (We’d find that an imbalanced combination of these four things will tend to accelerate biochemical dysfunctions within the body more readily.)
Feel free to refer here for a list of nutrients that can help support a healthy immune system!
Joel Yong, Ph.D., is a biochemical engineer/scientist, an educator, and a writer. He has authored 5 ebooks (available on Amazon.com in Kindle format) and co-authored 6 journal articles in internationally peer-reviewed scientific journals. His main focus is on finding out the fundamentals of biochemical mechanisms in the body that the doctors don’t educate the lay people about and then deconstructing them for your understanding — as an educator should.
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