Medical Insurance and Health Care

The eyes are very sensitive and delicate organs. Anything that irritates is extremely annoying, imagine the feeling of having a foreign body in the eye, a kind of grit that is added to the scrubbing makes you itch all the time, not to mention the redness and inflammation. How to go out with such respect? Well, one in five people (in America) they have allergies affect the eyes and is known as ocular allergy or allergic conjunctivitis. Although they may cause blurred vision, the good news is that the symptoms of this condition, although very annoying, not permanently affect sight, unlike other infections in the eyes that they can damage and sometimes give the same symptoms. So if you do not find relief and improvement with OTC medications for allergies and strategies to avoid it, they should enter into consultation with the ophthalmologist (a doctor specializing in eyes) or with your family doctor.

Why do they happen?
The function of the immune system or immune (the defense) is to protect the body from harmful substances such as viruses and bacteria. It also reacts and acts to foreign substances called allergens (to which the person is allergic) reaction that usually are harmless and cause no problems in most people. But in an allergic person, the immune system is hypersensitive and reacts in extreme ways. In the case of ocular allergy (eye), the problem begins when the conjunctiva (the membrane that lines the inner eyelid and the white of the eye) contact with an allergen. In its attempt to combat what it perceives as an attack, the immune system creates antibodies that cause the eye to release histamine and other chemicals to fight the allergen. That is what causes the redness, itching and tearing, discomfort may occur independently or in combination with nasal allergy symptoms.

The two types of ocular allergy
There are two types of ocular allergy: seasonal and more common, perennial. Seasonal allergy occurs only in certain seasons that coincide with times when there are more spores and pollen in the air (spring or fall), while the perennial occurs throughout the year. Its most common causes include exposure to dust mites, feathers, dander, dead skin cells of animals, smoke, pollution and also perfumes, cosmetics and certain drugs. Generally, the allergic person can identify what caused the outbreak of allergy: a walk in the garden, carrying a pet, vacuum dust, or being exposed to some cleaning products. But if the causes are not obvious, sometimes a blood test can identify them more easily. It is very important to know what causes the allergic reaction to isolate and avoid the triggers. Read the rest of this entry »