Skin Allergies

Allergy is a condition in which the body tends to react due to hypersensitivity to some substance such as food, drugs, drinks, pollution, flowers, and others. An allergen can be anything under the sun that might cause a reaction in one's body if the body disagrees with that substance. Even a common thing such as sunlight and air might cause sever reactions in some if the skin is susceptible to allergies due to the same.

Skin allergies are caused when the skin comes in contact with certain items that the skin does not agree with. This causes the skin to break into hives, rashes, swelling, redness and lots of itchiness. These might be caused due to a variety of reasons and not just food.

A few reasons that cause skin reactions are mehendi, henna, tattoos, metals such as nickel, silver, gold, cosmetics, latex, makeup, sunlight, seasonal rashes and many more such simple reasons that actually make no sense except to those who suffer.

Other than these, inherent skin diseases such as dermatitis, hives etc. can be treated if the reaction is observed at an early stage in children. However, treatment for skin allergic diseases is also temporary and most of them cannot be cured completely. Avoiding all that that produces a good reaction is a good option in most of the skin allergy cases.

Mehendi and henna staining as well as tattooing show a good percentage of skin reactions to all the chemicals used in those processes. Natural henna and mehendi are an alternative for such individuals who are allergic to the same. As for tattooing, it's a popular notion that it's just a mark of independence and making a point other than any good coming out of the same. For those who wish to make a statement while avoiding all the reactions caused due to the tattoo machine can go in for the artificial temporary tattoos that look just as good and can even be changed periodically before the design bores the wearer.

Some individuals, as mentioned, are allergic to certain metals. Nickel is the most common metal that causes reactions in most. A few percentages of people are allergic to even gold, silver and platinum. Titanium is a good metal for such individuals, as it usually does not cause allergic reactions to the skin.

Some foods such as seafood, milk products and nuts also cause severe skin reactions. They must be avoided at all costs as some of them like peanuts, shellfish, and jellyfish etc., can prove to be deadly for some.

Getting an allergy test done can help in the long run. It helps to know what the body reacts to adversely and thus prevent the reactions by avoiding the allergen. As the saying goes, prevention is always better than cure.