![]() However, severe allergic reactions are possible – especially, if the affected person eats large quantities of the allergenic food. What are the symptoms of a cross-reactivity allergy?Ĭross-reactivity usually involves only mild symptoms. ![]() ![]() The antibodies find similar binding sites on the apple substance as on birch pollen, to which they can dock and thus trigger an allergic reaction. In the case of a cross-sensitivity to apples, your IgE antibodies also react to protein components of the apple. You will then notice typical allergy symptoms such as a cold and watery eyes. The body then releases various messenger substances that set the allergic reaction in motion. These antibodies bind the protein components of the birch pollen as soon as they enter your body. If you are allergic to birch pollen, for example, special IgE antibodies are present in your blood. What’s peculiar about this is that the body’s defensive reaction is not triggered by the actual allergen (such as pollen), but by another substance, which the immune system mistakes for the allergen. With cross-reactivity, an allergic reaction takes place in the body. What happens in the body during a cross-reaction? Read more about food allergies and food intolerances in our Health Portal. It classifies them as dangerous and triggers an allergic reaction. With an allergy, the body reacts to what are actually harmless proteins, the allergens. People affected by certain allergies therefore also develop a food allergy, which experts call a secondary food allergy. ![]() The immune system confuses the substances with each other. With a cross-allergy, the body reacts not only to already known allergy-triggering substances, such as those contained in pollen, latex or house dust mites, but also to certain foods whose ingredients have a similar structure. For example, how do cross-allergies develop, what happens in the body during a cross-allergic reaction, and what are the most common cross-allergies? How can I get tested for cross-reactivity ? Receive practical tips from us on how to manage and relieve those pesky allergy symptoms. In this article, let us take you through several questions you may have about cross-allergies. The reason behind this is that the protein particles of birch pollen and an apple, for example, are so similar that the immune system sometimes cannot distinguish between them and fights them equally.įrom allergy symptoms such as a tingling sensation in the mouth, an itchy tongue and swollen lips and eyelids – experts estimate that up to 60 per cent of food allergies are related to inhalant allergens (such as pollen or house dust mites). Whether it’s the combination of birch and apple, of dust mites and prawns or of latex and tomatoes – with a cross-allergy, your body sometimes reacts to foods that at a first glance have nothing to do with the substances that trigger your known allergy. What is cross-sensitivity and what has it got to do with food allergies and intolerances? An allergy rarely comes alone: if you suffer from a pollen allergy, for example, and suddenly can no longer tolerate apples, nuts or stone fruit, this is what we call a cross-allergy, cross-sensitivity or cross-reactivity.
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