Do you believe any of these commonly held misconceptions about allergies? Then it looks like you’re allergic — to the truth!
Whether you merely get a little stuffed up during the spring, or helplessly wheeze as your throat closes up when you so much as look at a peanut butter sandwich, allergies affect a lot of us. And since allergies tend to make no sense — if a peanut can kill you, should you really be alive? — it’s easy to believe whatever you’re told by commercials, friends, and your Nana.
And so many of the things people believe about allergies turn out to be bogus. So we’ve rounded up six of the most common tall tales and provided the actual truth.
MYTH #1: Allergies aren’t real
The mind plays a role in immune response, which is why someone who’s allergic to shellfish might feel hives coming on if SpongeBob is on TV. But allergies aren’t the result of an overactive imagination; wheezing, coughing, or itching is your immune system telling you that something has angered it, and you better figure out what it is and fix it.
MYTH #2: Flowers trigger allergies
If you quit your job so that you could stay home and rub daffodils in your face all day, it’s possible you’d develop a flower allergy from the prolonged exposure. Otherwise, pollen produced by grass, trees, and weeds is probably responsible for jacking up your sinuses.
MYTH #3: You can build tolerance to allergy meds
Histamines cause things like nasal congestion, sneezing, and the awful feeling that your stuffed-up head is about to explode. When you take meds that block histamines (hence the name, antihistamines), your body’s suffering is eased. But unlike antibiotics, you won’t need to keep upping your dosage after prolonged usage.
MYTH #4: It’s all that g*ddamn animal fur
Pet allergies affect 10 to 15 percent of Americans. If you’re one of those people, don’t blame it on Cujo’s fur — blame it on his dander. Animals like cats, dogs, and Mogwai send dead skin (dander) into the air whenever they sit, rollover, or hump your leg. You can choose a breed that sheds less often, which will result in less dander. But you’ll never find a truly “hypo-allergenic” breed; they don’t exist.
MYTH #5: Kids outgrow their food allergies.
Some researchers claim that as people age, their gastrointestinal system stops absorbing substances that cause an allergic reaction. That might explain why 85 percent of children outgrow milk allergies (which are different than lactose intolerance), but it doesn’t apply to all foods. For instance, fewer than 10 percent of children outgrow allergies to tree nuts.
MYTH #6: Eating local honey makes you immune to airborne seasonal allergens.
The rationale is simple: If you expose yourself to small quantities of local pollen by way of local bees’ honey, your body can adapt and become impervious to pollen during allergy season. While a lot of tree huggers swear by this, the theory’s biggest flaw is, um, science. In short, there’s no proof it works, and some people actually experience allergic reactions to the honey itself.
