Chandelier
Senior Member (Voting Rights)
'Confusion in the immune system': How allergies can develop later in life
We often think of allergies as the result of an unlucky hand dealt in childhood, or even before birth. But "any person, at any point in their life, can develop a new allergy".
www.bbc.co.uk
1400-word article.
Excerpt:
The Covid 'on switch'
Some people are born with a genetic predisposition to allergy. But "it's not all genetics," says Ruchi Gupta, director of the Center for Food Allergy and Asthma Research at Northwestern University in Illinois. Often, "something is turning it on."
One such "on switch" is Covid-19, which can leave its stamp on the immune system in the form of new allergies.
A 2026 study found that catching Covid-19 is associated with a significantly higher risk of developing allergic rhinitis (more commonly known as hay fever) and asthma.
"Infection increased the risk, and vaccination decreased the risk," explains Philip Curman, a co-author of the study and a dermatologist at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The immune system can run wild during a case of COVID-19, cranking up inflammation – including a type known to be related to allergic disease, Curman explains.
