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Give Severe Allergic Reactions Your Serious Attention
Our goal is to provide you with essential information on severe allergic reactions and if you can make use of the information provided, you may just save a life, maybe your own.
As common as allergic reactions are their triggers or causing factors can vary widely as can the resulting symptoms. Thankfully the severest allergic reaction resulting in death from anaphylaxis is rare.
Anaphylaxis is the severest allergic reaction of all which circulates quickly and causes dangerous symptoms in the body. It can cause serious consequences as the patient generally has difficulty breathing and may undergo shock, which may result in death.
For anaphylaxis to start in the body you have to have been exposed to the trigger previously; this is referred to as sensitization. This means that though a bee sting may not cause severe allergic reactions at first, a second sting may lead to anaphylaxis or anaphylactic shock.
There is no way of knowing when anaphylaxis will result from exposure to the trigger, it may be the second time or several exposures may be necessary. Also how fast it takes for anaphylaxis to strike is unpredictable, it usually results within minutes but there can also be a delayed reaction.
The immune system overreacting when it detects an alien substance in the body is responsible for anaphylaxis. The white blood cells create antibodies when responding to the antigen; and these antibodies spread throughout the bloodstream and attach to some cells of the body.
Once the antibodies come in contact with an antigen, other cells start producing chemicals called 'mediators'. An example of such a mediator is histamine. And it is this effect of these mediators that causes an allergic reaction in the body.
There are many triggers for anaphylaxis; and only a trace amount of this trigger is sufficient to start a severe allergic reaction. These triggers to severe allergic reactions may be prescription and over the counter medications, venom of stinging insects, food additives, substances like latex, some foods like shellfish and nuts, dyes used in radiology procedures and transfusion of blood or blood products.
Although it is impossible to know when a severe allergic reaction will occur it has been found that asthma, eczema and hay fever suffers are more likely to endure anaphylactic situations than the rest of the population.
The most frightening life threatening crisis occurs from swelling and/or spasms in the air ways resulting in breathing difficulties leading to 'shock' which is loss of consciousness from low blood pressure. The breathing and heart can both stop in rare cases.
If you suffer a severe allergic reaction get immediate medical attention. Don't wait at home, head to your nearest emergency department, by ambulance if necessary.
Try not to panic while waiting for the ambulance, settle down and attempt to discover what caused the allergic reaction. Take an antihistamine as long as you don't have trouble swallowing or inject yourself or have someone else inject you with epinephrine if you have a kit.
The main motive of this article was to make you aware of the importance of being informed concerning severe allergic reactions and if you think that we were successful in doing that, our goal has been achieved.
About the Author Lorna Hillier the author is a registered nurse and is interested in many health topics. Her huge First Aid site has an informative free report called "Home Accident Prevention" This informative First Aid Awareness site includes 15 first aid related sections, one being Basic First Aid |
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