How allergic are you?

Besides diet, lifestyle, and other environmental factors, genetics also plays a part in determining what food allergies you have and how serious they are. Peach allergy can manifest as an allergic reaction to the actual peach, or to birch-pollen, which is a type of pollen that has a protein similar in shape to a protein found in peaches. This allergy is found to be more common in children and in females of European descent.

Besides diet, lifestyle, and other environmental factors, genetics also plays a part in determining what food allergies you have and how serious they are. While shrimp allergy is certainly not as common as peanut, milk, or egg allergy in the West, shellfish (a classification that contains shrimp) is the most common food allergen in Asia, in part due to the abundance of seafood in this region.

Gliadin, a component of gluten, causes gut inflammation in people with gluten sensitivity. Many foods in the modern diet contain gluten, including wheat-based foods like pizza and pasta. This trait shows your genetic predisposition for the level of gliadin IgG antibody (an immune cell) in your blood. Risk for gluten sensitivity is high when blood IgG levels are high, and vice versa.

House dust-mites are one of the common allergens known to induce allergic rhinitis (AR), a condition that causes excessive sneezing and a runny nose. AR is an allergic inflammation of the nasal airways which occurs when an allergen is inhaled by an individual with a sensitized immune system. Dust mites are often found in beds, carpet or furniture where the environment is warm and humid. They eat skin flakes of animals including humans and pets. The association between AR and single nucleotide polymorphisms were reported from three genome-wide association studies.

Dog dander is one of the common allergens known to induce allergic rhinitis (AR), a condition marked by excessive sneezing and a runny nose. AR is an allergic inflammation of the nasal airways which occurs when an allergen is inhaled by an individual with a sensitized immune system. The prevalence of AR in the industrialized world is increasing, particularly in urban areas. The association between AR and certain single nucleotide polymorphisms have previously been reported by at least three genome-wide association studies.

Allergic sensitization is defined as the presence of allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) against common environmental antigens. IgE-mediated sensitivity is considered to be central to the initiation of the allergy-associated (atopic) diseases such as rhinitis, asthma and eczema.