THE TURN OF THE QUESTION
The runny nose, the crying eyes, the scratching throat ... the return of good weather can complicate the life of people with respiratory allergies. Especially since their number has been growing steadily for several decades. Nearly one in three French would be affected by a respiratory allergic disease, according to figures from the Ministry of Health. And yet, many still downplay the impact this can have on their health. According to a survey conducted in 2007 by Ifop for the Asthma & Allergies association, of 34% of French people declaring themselves allergic, 47% consider that it is not a real disease.
"The idea of saying 'it's allergy' is bad," insists Wendy Bouchard, in The Tour of the Question on Europe 1, the allergist Madeleine Epstein, who also points out "the potential gravity "of an allergy. There are at least three reasons for not taking a potential allergic reaction too lightly.
- Because the period favorable to allergies is longer and longer
Untreated allergies become more and more difficult to bear because their spontaneous healing would be longer and longer. Several factors, which have not yet been identified, explain this phenomenon, including recent changes in our environment and our living conditions. "A few decades ago, allergy to pollen was reduced to 15 days / three weeks a year, what was called 'hay fever'," recalls Isabelle Bossé, co-author of the Black Book of Allergies to editions of the Archipelago. "Now, we see patients embarrassed from February, and who can be until October, it is no longer a banal disease as before."
>> From 9h to 11h, it is the turn of the question with Wendy Bouchard. Find the replay of the show here
This lengthening of the period of allergies would be notably linked to the multiplication of pollution peaks and to global warming, which increases the pollen content in the atmosphere. At the first symptoms, going to see a doctor or an allergist could potentially save you from long months of inconvenience.
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To avoid a risk of confusion with other pathologies
But what symptoms should you put the flea in your ear? Precisely, because they are rarely specific, a risk of confusion with other pathologies exists. "When you sneeze, it can be an allergy, but also a cold or irritation," says Madeleine Epstein. "This is valid for sneezing that is mild but can be disabling.The recurrent side should alert," says the allergist. "There is a time when people should say to themselves, 'It may be an allergy, I should go see.'" Respiratory difficulties, but also recurrent skin symptoms, should not be considered harmless either.
In case of self-medication, the confusion that the patient can make between a cold and an allergy is not without risk, for example with antibiotics, where antihistamines would be more effective. "With antibiotics, there is a risk of resistance.It is a public health problem to give antibiotics when they are not needed," warns our allergist.
Because you can develop an allergy at any age
Allergy is often considered a disease that affects mainly young adults. This prejudice wrongly invites older people to think they are immune. "You can become allergic to any age, of course, there is an age group that is more affected: the adolescent and the young adult, but it can also affect the youngest and the older adults," says Isabelle. Bossé. "We see people 70 or 75 who start allergies when they have never done."
And this observation does not concern only respiratory allergies, but also the food and dermatological phenomena. "I have the recent case of an 88-year-old patient who became allergic to shrimp when she had eaten it all her life," reports Madeleine Epstein. "She came up and said, 'Doctor, I do not understand, the last time I ate shrimp ... I got covered with hives.'"