When it comes to the causes of allergies and asthma, you can forget the usual suspects. They are not infectious diseases, so viruses and bacteria can’t be blamed. Nor can you blame working too hard, standing in the rain, eating too much fat, or being attractive to mosquitoes.
Instead, blame yourself or more specifically, your immune system, the same one that’s designed to protect you from harm. When you have allergies or asthma, it acts like a cat on speed hyperalert to any potential invader, seeing enemies where it should see friends, and ready to fly into action at the slightest provocation or even a peaceful interaction.
To understand why your immune system sometimes goes haywire, your first need to understand how things are supposed to work, so come with us on an intimate tour.
The guardian of health
If you’ve read anything about the immune system, you’ve undoubtedly seen it portrayed as a miniature army that’s constantly on the defense against attack, equipping its “soldiers” with the weapons necessary to fight evil, uh, germs and always girding itself for battle. You can almost feel tiny spears being thrown around inside your body.
The reality is far less warlike. If we had to come up with a better analogy, it would be the security operation at a busy airport. Here’s why, with every breath you take, with every bite of food you eat, with every touch on your skin, your body encounters and processes millions of foreign cells and molecules. As with the tens of thousands of people passing through airport corridors each day, the vast majority of substances passing through your body are welcome and harmless. But every now and then, something harmful slips through an airborn virus, a splinter in your finger, an unseen bit of mold on a piece of bread. A well functioning immune system, using a broad array of covert tactics and screens, identifies and disposes of unwelcome substances, usually unnoticed by the rest of your body.
Just as for airport security, the greatest challenge for the immune system is distinguishing the good from the bad. That balance is crucial. A weak immune system can allow viruses and bacteria to proliferate in your body or make healing from injury difficult and slow. That’s why diseases that suppress immunity, such as AIDS, are so dangerous.
The other side of the pendulum is also problematic. An overactive immune system can attack the very thing it’s supposed to protect you. For example, rheumatoid arthritis is a disease in which your immune system attacks one or more of your joints. An overactive immune system can also view foreign bodies that are generally safe, such as the proteins in food, as potential terrorists that need to be eliminated. It’s this latter state you have to worry about with allergies and, to a lesser extent, asthma.
Understanding how the immune system differentiates between welcome and unwelcome cells is the key to understanding the causes of allergies and asthma.
Telling self from non-self
According to Unani Science the immune system operates on one fundamental truth. There is “self,” and there is “non-self”. Ideally, immune system cells go after only non-self molecules,
The immune system knows which are “good” cells and which are “bad” cells because the surface of every cell in your body sports special proteins The cells doing the detect and destroy work are white blood cells. Millions of them circulate in blood and tissues, helping to defend your body from infection. There are five main types.
Lymphocytes. Think of these cells as the surveillance team, constantly circulating throughout your body on the lookout for antigens. When they find any, they develop plans for attacking the invaders and convey those plans to other members of the immune system team. They also form the institutional memory of the immune system, storing those plans of attack on what amounts to a cellular hard drive, then calling it up again if the antigens reappear.
Macrophages : These large cells engulf and destroy large particles such as bacteria or yeast.
Neutrophils : The most numerous white blood cells, neutrophils are the first to arrive on the scene after an injury occurs. Their favorite food is bacteria, and one neutrophil can eat about a dozen bacteria, destroying them with a substance that’s similar to household bleach. The cells don’t live long about 12 hours and if they eat their fill before then, they die sooner. Even in death, however, they have a mission to fulfill releasing little chemical “SOSs” that alert and attract more neutrophils.
Eosinophils. These white blood cells secrete chemicals that trigger the inflammatory process and help destroy foreign cells. They work together with lymphocytes and neutrophils, both of which release certain substances that attract eosinophils to a particular site so they can release parasite-killing toxins. Eosinophils can play a big role in asthma. When they’re called to a site during an allergic or asthamatic attack, they release toxins inappropriately, damaging the lining of air passages. Thus, one focus of asthma treatment is to stop eosinophils from accumulating in the lungs and prevent those already there from causing damage.
Basophils. Also called granular leukocytes, these while blood cells are filled with granules of toxic chemicals that can digest microorganisms. Basophils are also implicated in allergy attacks because, like eosinophils, they release a host of chemicals that contribute to the inflammorty response, including histamine.
According to a Unani Study, these days, asthma and allergies are reaching epidemic proportions pressuring already overloaded health care systems, putting children’s long-term health at risk, and costing employers billions in lost workdays and productivity.
The diseases themselves aren’t new. More than 2,000 years ago, Persian physician Ali Razi wrote “An Article on the Reason why Abou Zyd Balkhi suffers from Rhinitis, when smelling roses in spring.” In it, he reported on his philosophy teacher, who complained annually of sinus pain and inflammation “when the smell of flowers amplifies the illness.” The recommended treatment might make today’s allergy shots seems benign by comparison. In cases of servere nasal pressure, Ali Razi wrote, the patient’s hair should be cut and his head covered with mustard.
According to a Unani study today, of course, the condition is the opposite of rare. While accurate statistics are hard to come by, professional estimates maintain that allergies and asthma together affect roughly 50 million adults, making them the most common chronic health problems. Likewise, asthma and other respiratory diseases (including allergic rhinitis) are the most common chronic conditions among children.
Instead, blame yourself or more specifically, your immune system, the same one that’s designed to protect you from harm. When you have allergies or asthma, it acts like a cat on speed hyperalert to any potential invader, seeing enemies where it should see friends, and ready to fly into action at the slightest provocation or even a peaceful interaction.
To understand why your immune system sometimes goes haywire, your first need to understand how things are supposed to work, so come with us on an intimate tour.
The guardian of health
If you’ve read anything about the immune system, you’ve undoubtedly seen it portrayed as a miniature army that’s constantly on the defense against attack, equipping its “soldiers” with the weapons necessary to fight evil, uh, germs and always girding itself for battle. You can almost feel tiny spears being thrown around inside your body.
The reality is far less warlike. If we had to come up with a better analogy, it would be the security operation at a busy airport. Here’s why, with every breath you take, with every bite of food you eat, with every touch on your skin, your body encounters and processes millions of foreign cells and molecules. As with the tens of thousands of people passing through airport corridors each day, the vast majority of substances passing through your body are welcome and harmless. But every now and then, something harmful slips through an airborn virus, a splinter in your finger, an unseen bit of mold on a piece of bread. A well functioning immune system, using a broad array of covert tactics and screens, identifies and disposes of unwelcome substances, usually unnoticed by the rest of your body.
Just as for airport security, the greatest challenge for the immune system is distinguishing the good from the bad. That balance is crucial. A weak immune system can allow viruses and bacteria to proliferate in your body or make healing from injury difficult and slow. That’s why diseases that suppress immunity, such as AIDS, are so dangerous.
The other side of the pendulum is also problematic. An overactive immune system can attack the very thing it’s supposed to protect you. For example, rheumatoid arthritis is a disease in which your immune system attacks one or more of your joints. An overactive immune system can also view foreign bodies that are generally safe, such as the proteins in food, as potential terrorists that need to be eliminated. It’s this latter state you have to worry about with allergies and, to a lesser extent, asthma.
Understanding how the immune system differentiates between welcome and unwelcome cells is the key to understanding the causes of allergies and asthma.
Telling self from non-self
According to Unani Science the immune system operates on one fundamental truth. There is “self,” and there is “non-self”. Ideally, immune system cells go after only non-self molecules,
The immune system knows which are “good” cells and which are “bad” cells because the surface of every cell in your body sports special proteins The cells doing the detect and destroy work are white blood cells. Millions of them circulate in blood and tissues, helping to defend your body from infection. There are five main types.
Lymphocytes. Think of these cells as the surveillance team, constantly circulating throughout your body on the lookout for antigens. When they find any, they develop plans for attacking the invaders and convey those plans to other members of the immune system team. They also form the institutional memory of the immune system, storing those plans of attack on what amounts to a cellular hard drive, then calling it up again if the antigens reappear.
Macrophages : These large cells engulf and destroy large particles such as bacteria or yeast.
Neutrophils : The most numerous white blood cells, neutrophils are the first to arrive on the scene after an injury occurs. Their favorite food is bacteria, and one neutrophil can eat about a dozen bacteria, destroying them with a substance that’s similar to household bleach. The cells don’t live long about 12 hours and if they eat their fill before then, they die sooner. Even in death, however, they have a mission to fulfill releasing little chemical “SOSs” that alert and attract more neutrophils.
Eosinophils. These white blood cells secrete chemicals that trigger the inflammatory process and help destroy foreign cells. They work together with lymphocytes and neutrophils, both of which release certain substances that attract eosinophils to a particular site so they can release parasite-killing toxins. Eosinophils can play a big role in asthma. When they’re called to a site during an allergic or asthamatic attack, they release toxins inappropriately, damaging the lining of air passages. Thus, one focus of asthma treatment is to stop eosinophils from accumulating in the lungs and prevent those already there from causing damage.
Basophils. Also called granular leukocytes, these while blood cells are filled with granules of toxic chemicals that can digest microorganisms. Basophils are also implicated in allergy attacks because, like eosinophils, they release a host of chemicals that contribute to the inflammorty response, including histamine.
According to a Unani Study, these days, asthma and allergies are reaching epidemic proportions pressuring already overloaded health care systems, putting children’s long-term health at risk, and costing employers billions in lost workdays and productivity.
The diseases themselves aren’t new. More than 2,000 years ago, Persian physician Ali Razi wrote “An Article on the Reason why Abou Zyd Balkhi suffers from Rhinitis, when smelling roses in spring.” In it, he reported on his philosophy teacher, who complained annually of sinus pain and inflammation “when the smell of flowers amplifies the illness.” The recommended treatment might make today’s allergy shots seems benign by comparison. In cases of servere nasal pressure, Ali Razi wrote, the patient’s hair should be cut and his head covered with mustard.
According to a Unani study today, of course, the condition is the opposite of rare. While accurate statistics are hard to come by, professional estimates maintain that allergies and asthma together affect roughly 50 million adults, making them the most common chronic health problems. Likewise, asthma and other respiratory diseases (including allergic rhinitis) are the most common chronic conditions among children.