Allergy season is past us, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t suffering from adverse reactions year round from many bizarre and unheard of allergies. Between 40 and 50 million people suffer from one of the hundreds of possible allergic reactions. It occurs when your body’s defense system mistakenly believes a foreign substance, known as an allergen, is harmful to the body and overreacts in attempt to protect itself.

An antibody defense system is deployed, and it causes chemicals to release into the bloodstream; one of the most symptomatic ones is histamine. It acts on the skin, eyes, nose, tongue, throat, lungs, or gastrointestinal tract, and remembers the allergen when the body is exposed each time. Reactions can range from a mild runny nose, to severe reactions, such as difficulty breathing to asthma attacks, loss of consciousness, swollen tongue, and closed throats.

We’re familiar with the common allergies such as foods, animal dander, medications, insect bites, chemicals pollen, dust, mold and mildew, but there are several odd ones that may surprise us.

Strange Allergies Affect Many
Unheard of allergies are affecting many people, from sex to even exercise. Photo courtesy of Shutterstock