It happens that some people who are allergic to various types of allergens, despite avoiding them, still experience allergy symptoms. This is the case with cross-allergens, which, although different from each other, cause the same reaction of the immune system. This type of allergy includes primarily food and inhalant allergens.
The symptoms of such an allergy are primarily:
- Weakness,
- Stomach pain,
- Qatar,
- Rash,
- Cough.
Sometimes there is also an oral allergy syndrome, in which the symptoms are limited to the oral cavity. Cross-allergy symptoms can affect the skin, respiratory or digestive systems. Some suffer from general weakness, dizziness and trouble concentrating. When two allergens enter the body at the same time – e.g. apple and birch pollen, it can cause asthma symptoms or anaphylactic shock.
Causes of cross-allergy
Simply put, it is an overreaction of the immune system to various allergens. Normally, they have nothing in common – most often they will be food and inhalant allergens, i.e. pollen. Why such a reaction of the body to two different allergens?
Well, the difference is visible only at first glance, and after a closer analysis, you can see that they are similar in terms of chemical structure. The immune system reacts to them when, for example, they have a similar amino acid sequence.
- If the proteins in the two allergens are similar to each other by more than 70%, the possibility of occurrence cross-reaction she’s really tall,
- When the similarity does not exceed 50%, cross reaction occurs rarely.
Examples of cross allergens
Among these most frequently reacting allergens we can mention:
- Pepper, poppy seeds, curry,
- hazel pollen,
- house dust mite,
- Shellfish, i.e. crabs, shrimps, oysters,
- Mango, apricot, apple, orange, cherry, kiwi, cherry,
- Tomato, celery, carrot,
- snails,
- hazelnuts,
- Alder, hornbeam, oak, birch, beech pollen,
- mugwort pollen,
- Olive pollen,
- Pollen of lilac, ash, common privet,
- Cat’s fur,
- beans, tomato,
- chicken meat,
- pork,
- watermelon, melon,
- beans, tomato,
- Feathers,
- Kurze eggs,
- latex,
- Cow milk.