Food, clothing, and the environment expose individuals to billions of substances daily. These substances may not affect everyone, but some people’s immune systems may react aggressively. The reactions could be sneezing, coughing, experiencing shortness of breath, getting diarrhea, having rashes and hives, and swelling in the hands, lips, or throat. These reactions happen when the immune system recognizes a substance as a threat to the body and releases chemicals to fight it.

Sometimes, two conditions may occur together or trigger the other, for instance, allergies and asthma. Allergies can sometimes trigger asthma in individuals, and this is often known as allergic asthma.

Connection between asthma and allergies

1. Allergies that affect airways and lungs
Some immune systems may mistake common substances like food, chemicals, climate, and smells and send a response as a sneeze, cough, rash, or sickness. It indicates that the person has to avoid exposure to those substances. If the allergies affect the lungs or the airway, they trigger symptoms similar to asthma. Some symptoms go away when the person moves away from the allergen, while some allergic conditions, like anaphylaxis, can be life-threatening.

2. Asthma
A person is said to be asthmatic when their lungs and airways swell due to inflammation. The inflammation causes excess mucus production, making it difficult for a person to breathe. It is a chronic condition and may require continuous and lifelong treatment to prevent the patient from having an asthma attack. They have many periods of intense symptoms and then remission. The symptoms could be mild and treated with bronchodilators or severe, requiring hospitalization.

3. Common symptoms for allergies and asthma
Allergy symptoms can appear in many ways, but if they affect the lungs and airways, they mimic asthma symptoms. The common symptoms include wheezing, shortness of breath, a tight feeling in the chest, sneezing, intense coughing, and a runny nose.

4. Triggers of allergies and asthma
Here’s what triggers allergies and asthma:

• It is important to distinguish between the two conditions. People with asthma may have many allergies. Allergic asthma is a common condition when a person inhales an allergen, triggering asthma symptoms. But allergy alone cannot cause asthma, as there are so many other triggers other than allergies. Food and environmental allergens can cause asthma-like symptoms.
• Non-allergens like stress, anxiety, intense exercise, smoking, drinking, climate, acid reflux, GI tract stress, crying or laughing excessively, strong smells, or cooking can trigger asthma.

5. Treatment for allergies and asthma
The substances that cause these allergic reactions and symptoms are called allergens. While there is no cure for allergies, one can limit exposure to the allergens, treat the symptoms, and keep them under control. Asthma needs continuous and lifelong use of inhalers, while doctors treat allergies only when there are symptoms, except in cases when a person has severe symptoms. While there are separate and distinct treatments for allergies and asthma, there are some common approaches used to treat both:

• Allergy injections
  Doctors use allergy shots to control the response if an allergy triggers asthma. Small doses of the allergen are injected into the body. The immune system learns to recognize it, becomes tolerant, and stops reacting. The allergy shots help reduce and control asthma systems. One may require many allergy shots over time to see full benefit.
• The leukotriene modifier can help control symptoms of both allergies and asthma.
• One of the causes of allergic reactions is IgE, where the immune system produces antibodies called IgE to destroy the mistaken allergens. Doctors prescribe medication that interferes with the IgE and stops the allergic reactions or asthma symptoms.