How does allergy medication work?
In: Biology
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Allergies are the over-reaction of your immune system to allergens (dandruff, hair, pollen, dust, etc.,). This over-reaction triggers your body’s defense mechanisms causing you to get itchy, have a runny noise, sneeze, and cough, as those are things that can rid the allergen from your body.
Allergy medications work by blocking the parts of your immune system that signal those defense mechanisms. Different medicines target different parts of the immune system, but histamine is one of the main contributors to the allergic response hence why many allergy meds are called anti-histamines.
Severe allergic reactions are caused by an antibody called immunoglobulin E overreacting to what it thinks are infections and causing excess histamine to be released which in turn can cause severe reactions possibly leading to anaphylaxis. So anti histamines stop the histamines what they don’t do is combat the thing you are allergic to they just minimise your reaction to it. https://youtu.be/zk_oUk0bwxs
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