Park Heung-woo, professor of allergy at Seoul National University Hospital
Although temperature changes do not cause allergies, they can make allergy symptoms more severe.
It’s similar to complaining that it hurts when you get burned by just touching your skin.
There are so many patients with allergic disease that it is said to be a national disease. Last year, about 7.4 million people visited hospitals due to allergic rhinitis. If allergic dermatitis (about 4.2 million people), atopic dermatitis (about 970,000 people), and asthma (about 1.02 million people) are included, the number is well over 13 million.
Allergy is an inappropriate response of our body’s immune system to harmless substances (allergens). Allergic diseases are diseases that occur in various parts of the body due to this incorrect immune response. Representative examples include allergic rhinitis, bronchial asthma, atopic dermatitis, urticaria, and systemic anaphylaxis. There are various causes of allergies, including food, exercise, insects, and drugs.
Park Heung-woo, a professor of allergy at Seoul National University Hospital, said that to understand allergic diseases, we must first understand immune tolerance. Our body protects itself from harmful pathogens such as viruses and bacteria through an immune response. However, it does not cause an immune response to harmless substances that we eat, inhale, or come into contact with on a daily basis. This is called immune tolerance. However, if an immune response occurs to even a harmless substance due to environmental or genetic reasons, it becomes an allergy. Professor Park explained in detail the process by which allergies occur, using house dust mites, the most common allergen, as an example.
“When dust mites enter our bodies through breathing, macrophages capture them and show some of them to T cells. Normally, T cells do not react to dust mites. This is because it is a commonly encountered, harmless substance. However, when T cells that react to dust mites are created due to genetic or environmental reasons, immune tolerance is broken and an allergic reaction begins. T cells play various roles like an orchestra conductor, including instructing B cells to produce antibodies against house dust mite allergens. Antibodies created in this way are attached to the surface of effector cells (cells that carry out immune activities) such as mast cells, and when house dust mite allergens enter again, they secrete various mediators such as histamine, causing allergic symptoms.”
Professor Park treats a wide range of allergic diseases, especially patients with severe asthma and eosinophilic diseases. Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell that fights allergens but also attack our bodies, and many allergy experts are focusing on their research. Professor Park has published over 150 research papers in world-class academic journals, including research on eosinophils.
Why allergies get worse in early winter
Cold winds and viruses worsen allergy symptoms.
Why do rapid temperature changes during seasonal changes increase the incidence of allergic diseases such as rhinitis and hives?
Although temperature changes do not cause allergies, they can make allergy symptoms more severe. It’s similar to complaining that it hurts when you get burned by just touching your skin. For example, asthma patients have airways that are severely inflamed by allergies, so when they are stimulated by cold wind, their allergy symptoms can worsen. Viral diseases such as colds can make respiratory allergy symptoms worse. Patients with chronic hives also experience worsening symptoms during seasonal changes when it gets hot or cold.
How is allergic rhinitis different from the common cold?
Colds are rarely accompanied by pain and fever, but allergic rhinitis does not have pain or fever. Also, cold symptoms appear briefly for 4 to 7 days, but allergic rhinitis can last for several weeks. Frequent sneezing and itchy nose and eyes are also characteristics of allergic rhinitis.
House dust mites, the main culprit of allergic rhinitis, are abundant in summer, but why are allergic rhinitis caused by house dust mites more common in winter?
Many of the substances that cause dust mite allergies are contained in the bodies and feces of dust mites. Therefore, the concentration of dust mite allergens is highest in winter, when dead bodies and feces accumulate, rather than in summer, when dust mites are most prevalent. Poor ventilation in winter also increases the concentration of indoor allergens. In addition, house dust mite allergens are heavy and easily sink to the floor, so they are not easily removed even with an air purifier.
How to effectively deal with dust mites?
Exposure to dust mites should be reduced as much as possible. To do this, it is helpful to wash bedding such as blankets and blankets every week with water at 55-60℃, and to remove the carpet from the living room floor and replace it with monoleum. Synthetic leather or leather sofas are better than fabric sofas, and it is recommended to use a vacuum cleaner with a HEPA filter or a double-treated dust bag.
Why are there so many female allergy sufferers?
Female hormones act to increase and decrease allergies
There are various allergic diseases such as allergic rhinitis, urticaria, and atopic dermatitis. Are the principles and processes of occurrence all similar?
The pathogenesis is similar, but the progression of the disease is different depending on the organ in which it occurs and the type of substance that causes the allergy. Recently, non-allergic diseases that occur for reasons different from allergies, such as bacterial infections and air pollution, but whose symptoms are similar to allergic diseases, are on the rise.
Do allergic diseases and non-allergic diseases have different symptoms and treatments?
Because the symptoms are similar, it is difficult to distinguish them. Irritation from soot or viral infection also causes inflammation, similar to allergic disease caused by allergens such as house dust mites or pollen. Since both require an immune response, immune response inhibitors such as steroids are used for treatment.
According to government statistics, women have 20-30% more allergic diseases than men. Why?
This is thought to be due to differences in physical structure and hormones. For example, women’s bronchioles (thin parts at the end of the bronchi) are narrower than men’s, so they can easily develop respiratory allergy symptoms.
Female hormones also affect allergic diseases.
During menstruation or pregnancy, estrogen levels in the blood increase, which can cause symptoms of severe nasal congestion and runny nose. I once met a patient whose hives only got worse before and after her period. On the other hand, after menopause, estrogen decreases and women suffer from allergic rhinitis more than men. As estrogen decreases, the nasal mucosa dries out, becomes sensitive to stimulation, and creates an environment in which pathogens can easily invade. Additionally, an interesting study was recently published showing that the reason why asthma is twice as common in women than in men is because women have less testosterone, the male hormone.
Editor: Gongpil Kim (Reporter, Health Contents Group) | Photo: Dong-Hwan Kim
