Jul 6, 2026 · 21 min · 10 segments
Genetics and food exposure in early life can impact if you develop allergies or not. But those aren't the only factors at play! This month we are continuing on the topic of allergies, and this time…
Alex ClohertyHost
Merel SijbrandaHost
So what happens in an allergic reaction is that the immune system flags harmless proteins, the allergens, as threats.
And the thing is, every future encounter that the body sees this allergen triggers the same alarm.
The major player here in allergy is IgE, which is a specific antibody produced by B-cells.
And these IgE antibodies can stick onto immune cells, which are called mast cells, kind of like artificial grabbing arms.
When these immune cells notice an allergen, like pollen, for example, they will attack with a lot of different inflammatory molecules.
And histamine is then what causes the classical allergic symptoms, like the itching, sneezing, runny nose and watery eyes.
Yeah, so last episode, we compared the mast cells to sort of bouncers of the immune system.
They're at the door of our bodies and they're trying to make sure that nothing nasty gets in.
In the introduction, we mentioned that this episode, we will get into what the microbiome has to do with allergies.
So what happens in an allergic reaction is that the immune system flags harmless proteins, the allergens, as threats.
And the thing is, every future encounter that the body sees this allergen triggers the same alarm.
The major player here in allergy is IgE, which is a specific antibody produced by B-cells.
And these IgE antibodies can stick onto immune cells, which are called mast cells, kind of like artificial grabbing arms.
When these immune cells notice an allergen, like pollen, for example, they will attack with a lot of different inflammatory molecules.
And histamine is then what causes the classical allergic symptoms, like the itching, sneezing, runny nose and watery eyes.
Yeah, so last episode, we compared the mast cells to sort of bouncers of the immune system.
They're at the door of our bodies and they're trying to make sure that nothing nasty gets in.
In the introduction, we mentioned that this episode, we will get into what the microbiome has to do with allergies.
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