Why do we get immunity after being exposed to a pathogen but not an allergen?

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I get allergies almost everyday because of dust/pollen. But I will not get chickenpox after being exposed to it once.

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Think of your immune system like a fire alarm.

Pathogens are like a fire.

The first time a pathogen hits you, your fire alarm might not go off, because it isn’t set up to recognize kind of smoke.

But then it is.

And the second time that fire happens, boom fire system goes off, sprinklers go off, fire out. Immediately. before anything got burnt.

———————————————————–

Allergens are NOT like a fire. Allergens are like some dirt from the front yard on a windy day.

If that dirt blows into your house and clogs up the smoke sensor, oh no, ooop, the fire alarm still goes off. the sprinkler systems start spraying. But it can never learn to “put out” the fire, because there is no fire. Its just some dust screwing with the sensors again.

The only think you CAN do is maybe try turning the smoke sensor off for a while, until the dust clears out. (allergy meds = “antihistamines”, chemicals that block *think, temporarily disable* the germ sensors, so they’ll stop triggering the germ alarm until the dust *allergen* clears out)

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