Allergies and probability

[Spinoza]

So when I was a kid I had this strange idea that a person could only have one allergy; obviously experience proved me wrong (and quickly), but I continued thinking that among the people with allergies the ones with only one would be the majority, while people sensibilized to many allergens would have been much less... Think about it, it's just probability!

Turns out I was wrong, again. (Also I suck at math and probability calculus lol)

According to this article, the 80% percent of people with allergies suffers from multiple allergies.

Now, I'd like to know your experiences about it: does anyone here (or people you know) have more than one allergy? If yes, how many and to what?

And if you only have one allergy, please let us know! It seems you're a rare bird 😁

[Spinoza]

Also *sensitized, not "sensibilized". Sorry for the error

[NiceName]

Me!

I have Nettle, Grasses and Dustmites.

[bearwax]

This is interesting but kinda makes sense. In terms of sneezing, I’m allergic to dust and grass. I’d say I’m equally allergic to both. 
 

I have no food allergies, yet I’m deathly allergic to bees (like I have an epi pen) but nothing else. Does that count toward the rarity of just one allergy since it’s a different category? 

[bearwax]

1 minute ago, bearwax said:

This is interesting but kinda makes sense. In terms of sneezing, I’m allergic to dust and grass. I’d say I’m equally allergic to both. 
 

I have no food allergies, yet I’m deathly allergic to bees (like I have an epi pen) but nothing else. Does that count toward the rarity of just one allergy since it’s a different category? 

Actually, it definitely doesn’t count. Because there are so many people out there who are just allergic to nuts and have an epi pen solely for that one allergy. So I take it back. 
 

but yes, grass and dust are my sneezy allergies and both get me the same amount! I’m also allergic to cedar, but at a much smaller extreme than dust and grass. 
 

I’m here for your theory! 

[TheUnicycle]

I don't have any sneezy allergies. I have one food allergy that's relatively severe but not fatal (yet, at least) and I also have abnormally strong reactions to a few things that normally cause some issues (like bee venom, poison oak[last time I got poison oak I ended up having to go to the hospital and got put on steroids]). Also a couple medication reactions that my doctors are split on whether it's technically an allergy vs another type of negative effect, but... yeah. You can decide if that counts as more than one allergy or not; due to various circumstances, the food one is the only one that's definitive. I'm not planning on getting stung by a bee to test (also don't have reason to do official allergy testing)

[Bloogap]

I guess the keyword in that article is severity. While majority of people do have multiple allergies, only one or two allergens bring about a noticeable enough reaction (of course there are the poor souls who are under the mercy of their various triggers). 
 

Reminds me of my allergy test, where roughly a third of the pricks formed small bumps, but it’s the dustmite sample that produced a very angry and red swelling. 

[Spinoza]

20 hours ago, NiceName said:

Me!

I have Nettle, Grasses and Dustmites.

Annnd we have one! 😉

9 hours ago, Bloogap said:

I guess the keyword in that article is severity. While majority of people do have multiple allergies, only one or two allergens bring about a noticeable enough reaction (of course there are the poor souls who are under the mercy of their various triggers). 
 

Reminds me of my allergy test, where roughly a third of the pricks formed small bumps, but it’s the dustmite sample that produced a very angry and red swelling. 

This is very on point since the article talks about thresholds: I don't know if their different from person to person, I've only understood that one that is very sensitized to one or many allergens (so has more severe allergies) will reach the threshold more easily. That means that one can also have a lot of mild or light allergies and never be aware of it! (Or on the contrary, one will sneeze like crazy in the presence of the smallest amount of an allergen)

20 hours ago, bearwax said:

This is interesting but kinda makes sense. In terms of sneezing, I’m allergic to dust and grass. I’d say I’m equally allergic to both. 
 

I have no food allergies, yet I’m deathly allergic to bees (like I have an epi pen) but nothing else. Does that count toward the rarity of just one allergy since it’s a different category? 

 

14 hours ago, TheUnicycle said:

I don't have any sneezy allergies. I have one food allergy that's relatively severe but not fatal (yet, at least) and I also have abnormally strong reactions to a few things that normally cause some issues (like bee venom, poison oak[last time I got poison oak I ended up having to go to the hospital and got put on steroids]). Also a couple medication reactions that my doctors are split on whether it's technically an allergy vs another type of negative effect, but... yeah. You can decide if that counts as more than one allergy or not; due to various circumstances, the food one is the only one that's definitive. I'm not planning on getting stung by a bee to test (also don't have reason to do official allergy testing)

The concept of threshold also helps us to understand that we can count allergies together if we consider them as a unique totality, but we have to discriminate them if we want to account fornthe thresholds that I think are different from symptoms to symptoms; so for example, respiratory allergies will concern the same threshold beyond which one will sneeze, cough etc. while food, drug or sting allergies will have other thresholds (I beg you to be careful, you that suffer from those!)

[thefuzzydarkness]

I've got grass, dogwood, bananas, avocado, and benadryl...yeah literal freaking benadryl 😅

[Spinoza]

4 hours ago, thefuzzydarkness said:

I've got grass, dogwood, bananas, avocado, and benadryl...yeah literal freaking benadryl 😅

Wow, being allergic to an antihistamine seems a paradox, however it happens more frequentely than I've would expected.

I bet the answer will be no since they are tablets I think, but do benadryls make you sneeze, like other respiratory allergies? It would be even more incredible!

[thefuzzydarkness]

No unfortunately it's hives and throat swelling so not the fun kind of reaction. 😅

[SneezyKateM]

From what I understand, in general being allergic to something makes you more likely to also be allergic to something else.

Also, personally, i have tons of allergies.  Mostly nasal - almost anything you can be allergic to in that way im allergic to it.  I also have a dairy allergy - if i have more than a little bit it gives me asthmatic symptoms.  I can also get skin rashes from a few things

[sneezomania]

In German there's a term "Kreuzallergie" (translated to "cross allergy") used when someone is allergic to more than one thing. And there are combinations of allergens which are quite probable. For instance, if someone is allergic to birch pollen, he might well get allergic to apples too.

[SneezyBoi]

I have none..

Really hoping some will develope when I get older. Later in adult hood, people loose their childhood allergies,  and that’s common and normal but some people actually gain them. I’m hoping I’ll be one of those people 

[SneezyBoi]

1 minute ago, SneezyBoi said:

I have none..

Really hoping some will develope when I get older. Later in adult hood, people loose their childhood allergies,  and that’s common and normal but some people actually gain them. I’m hoping I’ll be one of those people 

(Not the harmful ones like diary allergies or nut allergies, I mean allergic rhinitis)

[Mrs.Primrose]

On 8/30/2024 at 5:28 PM, SneezyBoi said:

Really hoping some will develope when I get older.

I misinterpreted your profile info for a moment and read your 53 comments as *age* 53. I thought, "You're hoping to develop allergies after 53 years of none??" Then I noticed my mistake and laughed at myself.

[Mrs.Primrose]

I used to have no allergies! They started to develop in high school. The WORST one is that I became allergic to all NSAIDs suddenly in college. I mean Advil, aspirin, Motrin, Naproxen, etc. All the useful painkillers. They make my whole face and throat swell. The first time it happened, I had taken Advil right before a nap, and when I woke up I felt like I had developed a bad cold (complete with super sore throat and super swollen sinuses) in half an hour. It was bizarre. It took two or three reactions for me to figure out the correlation--whoops.

My skin prick test says my nasal allergies are to dust mites, "grasses mix 2" (whatever that is), mold, and olive trees. Sort of a weird assortment. 

My experience tells me that I have seasonal allergies every year and a half! For example, fall 2018, spring 2020, fall 2021, spring 2023. It's really strange. I guess this fall will be another sneezy season!

[Spinoza]

On 9/1/2024 at 5:36 AM, Mrs.Primrose said:

My experience tells me that I have seasonal allergies every year and a half! For example, fall 2018, spring 2020, fall 2021, spring 2023. It's really strange. I guess this fall will be another sneezy season!

Now that's what I call an intriguing pattern! Please let us know if your inference turns out to be correct 😄

[Mrs.Primrose]

8 hours ago, Spinoza said:

Please let us know if your inference turns out to be correct 😄

It's starting. I've felt it for the past 3 days. 🙃 Mostly tickly so far, some sneezing too.