I’m not sure how to word this, but I’m curious why our bodies don’t slowly get used to allergens we’re around all the time when one of the ways we treat/cure an allergy is to be exposed to it. Say you have a cat and you’re allergic to it, why don’t you become less allergic overtime?
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I’m not a medical expert, but it probably has to do with dosage. In therapy, you get just enough, to agitate your allergy and gradually over time the dose is increased, so the body learns how to deal with the allergens . In nature you can’t dose it, it would be like a sledgehammer compared to a pinprick.
Edit: plus,the time you are exposed is probably controlled too, do the body has time to recover
So imagine you’re afraid of dogs… so you decide to try exposure therapy! would you:
a) move to a place with tons of scary & feral dogs
b) force yourself to interact with every dog you see
c) slowly increase interaction, with the safest (actually & feeling) dogs, with a professional who can see how you’re responding and make sure you’re not just traumatizing yourself more
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Same idea; your body needs smaller amounts to have MILD reactions too, and get used to. NOT to overwhelm the system, and basically learn its actually dangerous (because of itself) making it worse.
sort of
it also doesn’t always work anyways
You know how when it’s 0c you can go outside without gloves and get used to it, but still shouldn’t unless you can come back in safely to warm up. Exposure therapy is the same thing, being exposed to an allergen in the wild is like going outside without a coat at -40c. It’s very bad and sudden, exposure therapy is very very little and has tons of safety measures to slowly adjust to the allergen as normal. Just like how going outside in fall gets you used to winter.
Instead of living with a cat, it’s like someone giving you one cat hair to smell a day. Then two or three. All while they have an epipen ready.