Allergies are very common and yet you may find yourself all alone dealing with it while others are enjoying a normal healthy life. For example, you accidentally eat peanut cookies at a party that causes itching and swelling of the mouth and tongue, leaving you helpless and looking for a cure. Meanwhile, your friends and others are enjoying those scrumptious cookies. Living with an allergy can be frustrating, disruptive and in some cases even life-threatening. Wondering why some people are allergic to certain things while others are not is natural.

Before we delve into any reasoning, let us understand what is an allergy or an allergic reaction. An allergy or allergic reaction is nothing but your immune system’s attempt to defend you normally against harmless substances, such as pollens, foods, house dust mite, animals, insect stings, and even medicines. Whilst in most people these substances pose no problem, in allergic individuals their immune system identifies them as a potential threat and produces an unnecessary response to it.

There is a lot of confusion about allergies and their development in individuals. Scientists are not entirely sure why some people suffer from allergies while others don’t, but studies show that genetics and environment are both important factors.

Being allergic can be purely genetic. Genetic tendency to develop allergies is called atopy. However, being atopic does not guarantee an allergy will develop, it just means it is more likely. In other words, having a parent who is allergic to nuts does not mean that the child will necessarily also be allergic to nuts, it only increases the likelihood of having any allergy at all. An individual with atopy produces specific IgE antibodies after exposure to common environmental allergens and is said to be sensitized to that allergen. The best way to confirm whether someone has an allergy is by doing skin-prick testing or a blood test that checks whether their immune system has produced antibodies to an allergen.

The environment must also factor into determining whether someone will be allergic or not. After all, the environment is everything we are exposed to. Studies suggest that the likelihood of developing an allergy increases if we are exposed to a particular allergen capable of influencing our immune responses. There is evidence that suggests that the rates of allergies and asthma are lower for those living on farms, due to exposure to a specific molecule apparently found in cow manure.

While we know that genetics and environment are somewhat responsible for the development of allergies, but we’ve still got a long way to go. The scientists are working to set out a broad theory identifying all other possible causes of allergy. Factors other than genetics and environment that can play a dominant role in the specificity of these allergies, their prevalence and severity.