Until fairly recently, most conventional allergists believed that the sort of symptoms seen in a patient depended largely on the type of allergen involved: the part of the body affected would be the part that first encountered the allergen. Thus, allergens that fell on the skin or brushed against it, called contactants, would tend to produce skin reactions such as eczema. Inhaled allergens or inhalants, such as pollen or dust, would produce symptoms in the nose and airways. Food allergens, obviously, would produce symptoms in the lips, mouth, stomach and gut. It was all very logical.
Among the patients treated by allergists, there were always some whose allergens could not be identified. With these unfortunate patients, it was assumed that some other non-allergic mechanism was producing the symptoms. Asthma patients, for example, were given the label ‘intrinsic asthma’ if no allergen could be pinpointed. Like many of the labels used in medicine this is just a clever way of saying that no-one has any idea what is causing the disease. These insoluble cases were an indication that something was wrong with the traditional concept of allergies, although few doctors realized this at the time.
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