Effort allergy: symptoms and treatment
In 1979, the concrete existence of effort allergy was ruled for sure. It was through a marathon runner who frequently suffered from anaphylaxies when exercising. The medical team that treated and studied looked all the allergic factors that could be behind their reaction to the effort, and discovered that, in reality, they were facing a food allergy. The corridor tended to eat seafood before practice.
Thus, the allergy to effort is an anaphylaxis that happens after eating allergen food and unleashing chemical reaction due to the effects of sport on the body. The main trigger is supposed to increase body temperature. It is not known how many athletes suffer in the world. It is very difficult to determine the prevalence of the condition, but more and more written about it and investigates it.
Other names for disorder are those of food -induced food allergy and sport anaphylaxis. The symptoms vary between each person, but there is almost always a dermal outbreak as a cardinal sign.
What foods cause effort allergy?
We already know that effort allergy is, in fact, a food allergy triggered and triggered by exercise. Now, what foods are those that trigger it in the background?
The truth is that any food can be the cause. It will depend on what is allergen for each. There are people with reactivity to spicy condiments, others to fish, and others to certain compounds of fruits and vegetables. Cereals and nuts, weighted among athletes for their low weight and high calorie contribution, are found in the list of the most allergic. Seafood, of course, are inescapable as a reference, since they originated the classification of pathology. Nor is the data of the temporal distance between the intake of food and sports. It usually happens that if the athlete eats the allergen more than 6 hours before its exercise, the reaction is not evident. So, it is suspected that the interaction is time dependent.
The increase in body temperature as a trigger
When we exercise we increase our body temperature. The organ in charge of regulating the homeostasis of that temperature is hypothalamus, in the central nervous system. By exercising we increase energy production to move our muscles, and that translates into heat that accumulates in cells. To get it outside, the hypothalamus must send certain orders that cause, in essence, to sweat. Sweating eliminates much of surplus heat. Sweat keeps us alive without being burned inside. To do this, the sweat glands work on piecework, and the ultimate responsible for what they do is the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. In short, the hypothalamus communicates with these glands through acetylcholine.
Collaterally to the stimulus to sweat, the neurotransmitter increases the activity and circulation of defense cells that are mast cells, which contain inside histamine. The mast cells travel and are located on the skin, in the lung tissue and in the stomach. If the mastocyte breaks and opens, histamine invades the surrounding areas, causing allergy symptoms. Recall that common use antihistamines are used, precisely, to treat allergy.
Treatment and prevention of effort allergy
As we have seen, the allergy to effort is an food allergy mediated by sweat, mast cells and histamine. The whole chain happens by the initial intake of an allergen, that is, a substance to which we are allergic.So, the first preventive measure is to avoid allergens. The ideal would be to never ingest them if we know that we are allergic to them, but in case they are minor allergies, what is recommended in athletes is not to eat them before the exercise.
For athletes, in general terms, the food plan should include the avoidance of allergens up to 6 hours before sports activity. With that time interval, the possibility of a histamine reactions chain is reduced. The use of antihistamines before or during exercise was not efficient in scientific studies that were tested. In addition, it should be remembered that an adverse effect of these drugs is drowsiness, something unixtable in the athlete.
conclusion
We are facing a rare condition, but they know in cases in all sports. His accurate diagnosis avoids future complications and allows the athlete to continue his practices. Taking the appropriate measures, which are simple, a person can continue exercising without major problems. It will depend on the degree of alert of the patient and the health team that addresses it.
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