• Question: Why are some people allergic to certain things while other people remain completely unaffected?

    Asked by Holly.W to Chris, Joanne, Kathryn, Kieran, Sarah on 9 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Sarah Guerin

      Sarah Guerin answered on 9 Nov 2017:

      If you are allergic to something, that normally means your body doesn’t have enough of a certain protein that helps to process that thing in body (peanuts, milk, medicine). People who are allergic to dairy products don’t have enough of an enzyme called lactase, which allows you to digest things like milk, cheese and ice cream. Whether people have this or not is pretty random,or you can inherit it from your parents.

    • Photo: Chris Werner

      Chris Werner answered on 9 Nov 2017:

      Great question Holly, and its not a very simple answer either, had to go looking around for this! The honest answer is that its still being figured out! A popular theory is that its the immune system reacting to harmless substances because there aren’t enough harmful ones around to train it to discriminate between them. There is still the question though why bee sting allergies are far more aggressive than something like a mosquito bite. Its still a very quizzical topic!

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