Allergy to dust: symptoms, treatment
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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[Why does an allergy to dust occur?
The notorious dust mites, of which today a lot of information is collected, but which continue to live side by side with a man, still pose a threat both to allergy sufferers "with experience", and for people who still do not know what an allergy is to dust and allergies in principle. Since dust itself is not a natural substance, but consists of many components, it is necessary to study information about it in more detail. Dust can be safely called microcosm, because it sometimes lives its own, independent of a person's life and consists of many thousands of components. By species dust is divided into natural, domestic and industrial, in short, wherever a person is, it will in any case be surrounded by dust. Also, the dust can be organic, inorganic and mixed - mixed. All dust particles carry a microcharge of electricity, some of the dust elements are toxic and even capable of burning. It is estimated that the amount of household dust in a standard apartment of three rooms, where three or four people live, reaches 40 kilograms per year. This is provided that the house is periodically cleaned and elementary hygiene rules are observed. The most concentrated dust is collected at a height of just above the meter, hence, the children undergo the dust attack due to their small growth. A list of dust components is worth a separate article, and possibly a book. But we will stop at the most serious enemy in the sense of provocation of an allergy - a dust mite.
An allergy to dust, as a rule, is an inconspicuous invasion of a dust mite into the human body. Mite is almost everywhere - in linens, carpets, pillows, books. They are invisible to the eye, but they are dangerous by their quantity and unique ability to resist any general cleaning and treatment with chemicals. His name Dermatophagoides speaks for itself - destroying, damaging the skin. In principle, the survivability of ticks is understandable, because they are saprophytes, that is, our satellites along with bacteria, including intestinal ones, which are even considered useful. And mites do not attack the human skin at all, in order to eat it, on the contrary, a person "drops" to one gram of dead skin every day, which is the food for Dermatophagoides.
A fair question, why do mites cause allergies? An allergy to dust associated with mites, occurs just at the time when a person has the longest contact with an allergic antigen, that is, when asleep. Most of the mites are in mattresses, blankets, in particular a lot of them in feather linen. The person sleeps, the skin, which is the nutrient medium for microclusters, settles on the laundry. Absolutely logical, that for ticks the bed and is the best place of dwelling and a food. Although not less popular "houses" for these dusty enemies of mankind can be soft children's toys, carpets and so on. Ticks love humidity, moisture levels below 50% are uncomfortable for them.
Symptoms of dust allergy
The danger of ticks for the human body lies in the structure, it is extremely similar to the protein structure of the known immune system of parasites. As soon as the tick comes through the respiratory tract into the body, the immune response occurs instantaneously, the system does not differentiate the tick or it, for example, a toxic microhelminth. Well, if it is a simple sneezing as a reflex release from dust. Worse, when the allergic reaction increases and becomes chronic. Asthmatic symptoms and the development of the disease, up to bronchial asthma, are also possible.
How is dust allergy prevented?
The dust allergy is determined quite accurately with the help of skin tests. And as a neutralization of symptoms sometimes it is enough to conduct a wet cleaning regularly, especially if it is allergic in the house. Although, even if the allergy has not visited while your house, you should not wait for its appearance.
As you know, any disease is easier to anticipate and prevent. In the case of an allergy to dust, this is quite simple. The recommendations are as follows: do not accumulate unnecessary things, get rid of feathers if possible, or clean them and disinfect them constantly, ventilate the room more often and work inaccessible places in the house in a harmless way in the chemical sense. Then the allergy to dust will be just a word combination, and not a habitual reaction, threatening health.