the.com/allergy
Your immune system mistaking pollen for a home invader and calling in an airstrike.
means An overreaction by your immune system to a normally harmless substance, treating it like a dangerous threat.
from Coined in the early 1900s from Greek 'allos' (other, different) plus 'ergon' (work or action) — literally 'altered reactivity.' A doctor introduced it to name a puzzling pattern he was seeing: bodies responding abnormally to things that shouldn't provoke a response at all. The word was built deliberately as medical shorthand, not a folk tale — but it's held up remarkably well for describing an immune system that's technically doing its job, just aimed at the wrong target.
- original meaning
- Von Pirquet meant any changed immune response, good or bad
- culprit cells
- Mast cells dump histamine like a false fire alarm
- peanut paradox
- Early peanut exposure in infancy now prevents allergy, not causes it
- evolutionary theory
- Allergies may be leftover defenses against parasites and toxins