eli5 if the immune system attacks allergens then why aren’t I immune to them after being aTtAcKeD by pollen every year :’(
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The problem with allergies is that the immune system is attacking them when they don’t need to. Your immune system thinks its doing the correct thing by ringing the alarm bells and mobilizing the body’s defenses when pollen enters the body. It doesn’t know that pollen is harmless, so it attacks it every time. This reaction is what we call allergies. The pollen isn’t actually doing anything to your body; your body itself is overreacting to the (harmless) pollen.
The immune system attains immunity by being very prepared to attack and destroy infectious agents when they are encountered. If you are immune to the flu for example your body will already know how to destroy the virus before it can gain a significant foothold and make you sick.
Instead symptoms of an allergy aren’t from the allergen itself, but from the immune system’s response. If the allergen was actually infectious then you might well be immune by how strongly the immune system reacts to combat it. You feel bad though because of the things the body does to fight off the perceived invader.
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