I recently developed an allergy to mealworms and darkling beetles
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No , I’d have to be pretty allergic to even notice anything with my ear pain. No gives so I’m fine. It’s also possible you’re allergic to what you’re feeding them. Their bedding or Frass.
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Very common and typical. It was referred to as threshold break over to me, where the immune system suddenly starts over reacting. Shellfish and chitinous animals are common allergens. Everybody is different with different thresholds.
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Urticating setae Im alergic to to an extent , but wearing gloves pretty much works. I often don’t even need them for feeding /watering. My windbreaker no longer fits. I need a new one. I’d wear a mask
but it fogs my glasses up.I could mess around with feeders 24/7 and not alergic to anything I currently keep.
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Always be aware if a person may be at risk of significant anaphylaxis the primary path for allergens is through the respiratory system. digestive secondary and dermal tertiary. If in doubt, go the N95 route.
From zero to deadly enemy, time is a factor. Respiratory distress can manifest in seconds.
From zero to deadly enemy, time is a factor. Respiratory distress can manifest in seconds.
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Allergies of any sort can develop at any time in life
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Yeah I wasn’t alergic to anything then one med I was and then 2 more things .
🫠 it happens.
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Let's clarify this issue, since it is an established frequent cause of death.
Genetic, transferred across the placenta, or acquired. ALL allergies are one of the three. Acquired, the commonest, is the immune system over reacting to ANYTHING at ANY TIME to a foreign substance invading the body. Many of these over reaction episode are from substances that have not caused a previous extreme reaction. The immune system has a memory, but no thought processes. It does not know how hard it should respond.
Therefore repetitious exposure to a potential allergen may enforce the immune system response. weaken it, or swing from zero noticeable reaction to week or weeks long entire body intensely itchy rash, nausea and a life threatening fever. <- this is a typical, clinically recorded reaction to the penicillin family of antibiotics. Your friend, until it tries to ruin your life or kill you.
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You have been given good answers here. An acquired allergy involves sensitization to a new antigen (usually a protein or sugar-protein complex that the immune system learns to recognize). There's a cascade of necessary events in the development of the allergy, typically with sensitivity thresholds that are overcome by repeated exposures. It usually goes like this:
Antigen presenting cells (APCs) cut up the antigen protein and present segments of it on surface MHC (molecular histocompatibility complex) receptors. The APCs migrate to lymph nodes where the antigen fragment-MHC complexes are recognized by T-helper cells, which become active Th2 cells. The Th2 cells release inflammatory chemical signals (cytokines, especially interleukins 4, 5, and 13) that activate B cells. The B cells most reactive to the antigen multiply rapidly and start producing antibodies of the IgE class. The IgE antibodies are released into the blood stream and carried throughout the body. They get picked up by what could be thought of as front-line soldier immune cells (mast cells, eosinophils, and basophils) which have a specific receptor (called FcεRI) that binds IgE antibodies. Now you are primed for an allergic reaction. When you're exposed to the allergen, the IgE on immune cells binds the antigen and causes the immune cells to release granules of inflammatory chemicals (in common parlance, they go ballistic). One of these inflammatory chemicals is histamine, which is why many allergy medications are anti-histamines.
There's a great deal of similarity (cross-talk, we immunologists would say) between the inflammatory mechanisms of allergies and of asthma. Many of the same cell types and the same cytokines are involved. What you describe is a very common medical reality that makes perfect sense and happens all the time. You have a clear path forward, to avoid exposure to the triggering antigen, and to continue using any of the anti-inflammatory asthma treatments you may have been prescribed.
This is the reality right now, the state of the medical art. Today, it is borderline science fiction to think that we can selectively delete immune cell clones that recognize particular allergens. Allergy shots can have some of this effect by burning out immune cell clones with supranormal exposure levels, but in the future I believe we will be able to do better. I am currently researching ways of selectively reactivating the clonal deletion mechanisms that [mostly, except in the case of autoimmune diseases] prevent us from becoming allergic to our own human proteins. This clonal deletion process normally ends near the time of our births, but we may be able to commandeer and reactivate that mechanism selectively in an adult. People hundreds of years from now will think of our present medical practices in the way that we think of medieval blood-letting, smudging, and trepanning to release demons. The sun will come out tomorrow, or in many tomorrows. The future will be better.
Antigen presenting cells (APCs) cut up the antigen protein and present segments of it on surface MHC (molecular histocompatibility complex) receptors. The APCs migrate to lymph nodes where the antigen fragment-MHC complexes are recognized by T-helper cells, which become active Th2 cells. The Th2 cells release inflammatory chemical signals (cytokines, especially interleukins 4, 5, and 13) that activate B cells. The B cells most reactive to the antigen multiply rapidly and start producing antibodies of the IgE class. The IgE antibodies are released into the blood stream and carried throughout the body. They get picked up by what could be thought of as front-line soldier immune cells (mast cells, eosinophils, and basophils) which have a specific receptor (called FcεRI) that binds IgE antibodies. Now you are primed for an allergic reaction. When you're exposed to the allergen, the IgE on immune cells binds the antigen and causes the immune cells to release granules of inflammatory chemicals (in common parlance, they go ballistic). One of these inflammatory chemicals is histamine, which is why many allergy medications are anti-histamines.
There's a great deal of similarity (cross-talk, we immunologists would say) between the inflammatory mechanisms of allergies and of asthma. Many of the same cell types and the same cytokines are involved. What you describe is a very common medical reality that makes perfect sense and happens all the time. You have a clear path forward, to avoid exposure to the triggering antigen, and to continue using any of the anti-inflammatory asthma treatments you may have been prescribed.
This is the reality right now, the state of the medical art. Today, it is borderline science fiction to think that we can selectively delete immune cell clones that recognize particular allergens. Allergy shots can have some of this effect by burning out immune cell clones with supranormal exposure levels, but in the future I believe we will be able to do better. I am currently researching ways of selectively reactivating the clonal deletion mechanisms that [mostly, except in the case of autoimmune diseases] prevent us from becoming allergic to our own human proteins. This clonal deletion process normally ends near the time of our births, but we may be able to commandeer and reactivate that mechanism selectively in an adult. People hundreds of years from now will think of our present medical practices in the way that we think of medieval blood-letting, smudging, and trepanning to release demons. The sun will come out tomorrow, or in many tomorrows. The future will be better.
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@DaveM That was very well said. Easy to understand. Now, could you please explain:
Ambulance called, arrived on scene. Patient with multiple wasp stings close to respiratory arrest. Got him on IV and transported. Acute anaphylaxis continued. In the ER, (short staffed) the physician upped the Epi and added adjjuncts. Somewhat stabilized physician requested we remain in the ER for additional person power especially monitoring our patient ECG continuously. Apparently the docs worst fears were realized when cardio artifacts started. Acute, QRS often interrupted. We pumped in a galaxy of cardio meds until ICU nurses were available to take over. Reported to me by an ICU nurse the cardio issues continued for about 8 hours then slowly abated.
What is the anaphylactic mechanism that targets the cardio functions like that? I kept up with your IgE 101 so be as technical as you please.
Ambulance called, arrived on scene. Patient with multiple wasp stings close to respiratory arrest. Got him on IV and transported. Acute anaphylaxis continued. In the ER, (short staffed) the physician upped the Epi and added adjjuncts. Somewhat stabilized physician requested we remain in the ER for additional person power especially monitoring our patient ECG continuously. Apparently the docs worst fears were realized when cardio artifacts started. Acute, QRS often interrupted. We pumped in a galaxy of cardio meds until ICU nurses were available to take over. Reported to me by an ICU nurse the cardio issues continued for about 8 hours then slowly abated.
What is the anaphylactic mechanism that targets the cardio functions like that? I kept up with your IgE 101 so be as technical as you please.
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OK, well there's a great deal of overlap here with the mechanisms discussed above for asthma and acquired allergies. Sometimes I suspect you, @The Snark, already know most of these answers, but I will play along. First a couple of general background facts:
* It takes time for cells to synthesize chemical messengers, so when a rapid response is important, cells will build up stores of chemical messengers in advance to have them ready for release as needed. For example, we see how neurons pack neurotransmitters into synaptic vesicles (small, simple membrane bubbles inside the cell that contain the chemicals), which are waiting to be released immediately when the cell gets triggered. Histamine is a neurotransmitter and can be released by neurons this way in some cases, but histamine is also a more general signalling molecule for pain, inflammation, mediation of vasculature [tone and permeability] and blood pressure, and it also does directly regulate the heart.
* Chemical messages are released by cells to signal in a few different kinds of logistical ways:
autocrine - cell signaling to itself; that might sound silly, but cells can be big and it takes work to synchronize a whole cell to perform some activity. An alien race might think it's silly that humans send signals all around the world, just signalling to other parts of our one planet, but this makes sense to us, people being spread around the world and our world seeming big to us.
paracrine - cells signalling to neighboring cells; this is how a local inflammatory response is mediated, cells crying out to their neighbors "I'm hurt or damaged or receiving noxious stimuli" and then the neighboring cells help extend the cry for help, to assist in recruiting soldier cells of the immune system and repair cells like fibroblasts that can heal wounds, etc.
endocrine - cells signalling system-wide throughout the body. For example adrenaline/epinephrine readies heart, brain, and skeletal muscles for the anticipated fight or emergency. This is also how a systemic allergic reaction, such as anaphylaxis would be regulated. Some neurons can participate in endocrine signalling; there a whole field of study called neuroendocrinology, but most neurons usually communicate through their own specialized form of paracrine signalling as follows.
neuronal synaptic transmission - when communication must be as fast as possible, neurons have evolved long outgrowths (axons and dendrites) that reach long distances out to where the signals must be sent and received. Within the neuron, the signal is transmitted by electrochemical waves much faster than would ever be possible by diffusion of a messenger. The messenger chemicals are received and released across a tiny distance (inside the synapse), so signalling really can occur in milliseconds.
* Anaphylaxis is a systemic endocrine signalling mediated allergic response. Mast cells and basophils with IgE antibodies that recognize the triggering allergen undergo "degranularization" - they release a massive flood of chemical messengers that they had stored in granules, now released into systemic circulation (endocrine signalling). The body's response to this and other endocrine signalling events happens in seconds to minutes. The main chemical messengers released are histamine, leukotrienes, and prostaglandins. These cause pain and inflammation. Tylenol/paracetamol/acetaminophen, Bayer/aspirin, and Advil/ibuprophen all reduce pain and inflammation by inhibiting enzymes (cyclooxygenases) that synthesize prostaglandins. Leukotrienes cause smooth muscle contraction and are a major factor in causing the constriction of bronchioles that lead to asthmatic attacks and breathing problems during anaphylaxis.
* Histamines cause vasodilation, hypotension (low blood pressure), increased permiability of the vasculature (leakage of blood plasma into interstitial spaces), and they alter the contractility of the heart cardiac muscle. The decreased return of blood to the heart, the lowered blood pressure, and the cardiac muscle contractility irregularity can lead to heart attacks / cardiac arrest.
SO, there's a well-known medical logic behind what @The Snark reports. Epinephrine/Epi (what Brits and thrill-seeking adrenaline junkies call... wait for it... ...adrenaline) is a first line of defense in anaphylaxis because it counteracts the actions of histamine on the heart and vasculature.
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Which explains or partners the occluded QRS complex.
Right. Like I managed to memorize the entire ACLS course while working a full and part time job and trying to get my own business off the ground - several decades ago.
But a good refresher. Not a single mechanism but a series of events that were known and predictable enough to the degree the doc parked us on the patient. Thanks!
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Impressive. memorizing stuff is challenging!!! My short term isn’t so good .🫠
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It's offset by the stuff I forget.
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From a chat with my ER doc buddy a few minutes ago: Rattled off as best as I could remember it.
The immune system could be said to be the most active function in the body. It is in constant operation, more so than respirations or heartbeat. It is also in a state of constant flux, altering and updating what it does every fraction of a second. At a glance this may sound outlandish but in fact is an understatement. Every respiration, breath of air you take in contains millions or billions of microbes. Some manage to enter the blood stream. These are identified and through a very sophisticated bio-chemical process of type matching for lack of a simpler term and they are eliminated by the customized weapons the immune system makes. If the microbe isn't properly identified again the immune system swings into action and performs what could be termed lab experiments on it to determine what will eliminate it from the body. So it could be said the immune system constantly adapts to the environment.
Take the people who perforce have to live in bubbles. They cannot breath ordinary air. Within a few minutes or hours or days a few of the countless billions or trillions of microbe we all ingest with every breath will enter the blood stream through the lungs that finds a conducive environment for it to thrive that runs contradictory to the health of the body. Without a functional immune system or alternately very prompt medical intervention and a dose of dumb luck that's all she wrote.
Regarding your query about sudden hypersensitivity to a substance, anaphylaxis, what the medical community is constantly surprised about is how few mistakes the immune system makes in identifying hazardous organisms and eliminating them without us even being aware we have contracted a disease as it was quickly eliminated without immune system histrionics.
Me: Histrionics?
Him: Biologically speaking that pretty much sums up an anaphylactic episode. A performer steps on stage, slips and falls, a dozen stage hands rush out to assist and the audience gets much more entertainment than they bargained for.
Me: So histaminetrionics.
Him: I may forgive you for saying that.
The immune system could be said to be the most active function in the body. It is in constant operation, more so than respirations or heartbeat. It is also in a state of constant flux, altering and updating what it does every fraction of a second. At a glance this may sound outlandish but in fact is an understatement. Every respiration, breath of air you take in contains millions or billions of microbes. Some manage to enter the blood stream. These are identified and through a very sophisticated bio-chemical process of type matching for lack of a simpler term and they are eliminated by the customized weapons the immune system makes. If the microbe isn't properly identified again the immune system swings into action and performs what could be termed lab experiments on it to determine what will eliminate it from the body. So it could be said the immune system constantly adapts to the environment.
Take the people who perforce have to live in bubbles. They cannot breath ordinary air. Within a few minutes or hours or days a few of the countless billions or trillions of microbe we all ingest with every breath will enter the blood stream through the lungs that finds a conducive environment for it to thrive that runs contradictory to the health of the body. Without a functional immune system or alternately very prompt medical intervention and a dose of dumb luck that's all she wrote.
Regarding your query about sudden hypersensitivity to a substance, anaphylaxis, what the medical community is constantly surprised about is how few mistakes the immune system makes in identifying hazardous organisms and eliminating them without us even being aware we have contracted a disease as it was quickly eliminated without immune system histrionics.
Me: Histrionics?
Him: Biologically speaking that pretty much sums up an anaphylactic episode. A performer steps on stage, slips and falls, a dozen stage hands rush out to assist and the audience gets much more entertainment than they bargained for.
Me: So histaminetrionics.
Him: I may forgive you for saying that.
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Yeah I can understand that.
I can’t even remember putting my gatoraid drink in the freezer to chill it .. half the time.yes, that bubble boy movie wasn’t made up? People actually can’t survive outside.?? Wow
..
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Varying degrees up to SCID- the boy in the bubble condition. I knew of one woman who had a trailer modified as a bio isolation chamber and toured the west coast. She had persons who assisted her but was never able to leave the trailer. She stayed near our coastal city for several months.
Most conditions now treated by gene therapy with varying degrees of success.
A very common immunodeficiency disease is HIV. Uncontrolled by medication it progresses to AIDS which is almost always fatal. HIV/AIDS doesn't kill in itself, it simply trashes the immune system.
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Ouch yeah that’s crazy .
I had a friend who said Magic Johnson is only alive because he’s super rich and can’t afford the best AIDS medication.
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He has HIV, and as a few million others it's yours for the rest of your life. No cure known. But modern medicine now offers very affordable or even free drugs which keep HIV from becoming AIDS. That was one of the major beefs when big pharma went price scalping and the US Gov somehow managed to enact some rules of the road making those critical meds readily available to all.
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