Allergies may seem quite a nuisance but few know that it is actually an attempt by our body to save our life! Allergies are our immune systems response to food allergens that can harm the body. People can be allergic to a whole lot of things, a wide range of things in fact, from pollens to cheese, to dust. Reactions are also wide range. Some only exhibit skin reactions such as rashes and itchiness while others report on physiological reactions such as nausea and breathing difficulties.

Allergic reactions are actually caused by our bodies attempt to neutralize the foreign substance through antibodies. This process releases a substance called histamine, which in turn causes the allergic reactions.

One of the most common types of allergy is food allergy. There are, in fact, millions of people who suffer from this ailment. In addition to being largely inconvenient, food allergy can be life-threatening. Unfortunately, finding out what food you are allergic to can only be done through the process of hits and misses. There is no clear cut procedure or diagnostic test that can tell you outright to what food you are allergic to. And like the diagnostic process, there is also no clear-cut procedure on how to treat food allergens. Although there are medicines that will help ease the symptoms and physiological reactions brought on by the allergens, there are no drugs that can completely get rid of the allergy.

Often, food allergens only cause mild symptoms such as itchiness, appearance of rashes that spread all over the body, itchy eyes and runny nose, bouts of sneezing and coughing, vomiting, diarrhea and earaches. While these symptoms can cause you a day's work at the office, they are not exactly dangerous to your health. There are allergic reactions though that are so severe that it will impede your breathing. This occurs when the mouth, throat and the bronchial tubes swell so much that your breathing area gets blocked. This condition can be accompanied by rashes in the body and a really swollen face.

What is really difficult about dealing with food allergy is that you do not know just how much can you take and how your body will react when it ingests a certain amount. In addition to taking care not to ingest the type of food that you are allergic with, it is also good to determine early on if too much of the food allergen can cause your death.

Here are some of the common food allergens. Take a look and see if the food you are allergic on threatens your life...

Peanuts is perhaps the most dangerous of the lot, not because of the bodily reactions that it can cause but because peanuts are often used as hidden ingredients in a lot of food mixtures. Because of this, people who are allergic to it are often caught unaware.

Another food used as hidden ingredients in so many food mixtures is soy. People should be really careful in eating foods that they are not familiar with especially if they know that their reactions to these foods are severe.

Fish and shellfish can cause severe reactions in some people including difficulty in breathing and nausea.

Milk allergies are also quite common. It involves an allergic reaction to casein, lactalbumin and lactoglobulins, which are all proteins found in milk. Allergic reactions to milk can range from something as mild as rashes to severe cases such as wheezing, asthma, rhinitis, pneumonia and anaphylaxis.

Robert Thatcher is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides belly button ring resources on www.your-belly-button-ring.info.