First Aid: What is Anaphylaxis in simple terms

Ken Doyle is a Paramedic registered with the HPC and Training Director at www.firstaidtraining4u.com   It is not intended for health care professionals in any academic sense, it is aimed at individuals or groups who may from time to time come into contact with someone who is susceptible to an anaphylactic reaction.

They could be parents of younger children or care workers, either adult or child care, and last but not least, anyone who might be interested in knowing what to do if they are in the vicinity of someone who presents with a severe allergic reaction. It is also dedicated to my daughter and anyone else who is prone to anaphylaxis, and one day might need your help.

It is important to understand that an allergic reaction is measured from the low end of the spectrum where we might get a small itchy rash from nettle stings, to the extreme end of the spectrum where the reaction involves the whole body and becomes life threatening. The latter is called a severe allergic reaction.

I will attempt to present the following text in the simplest possible terms and avoid any difficult or confusing medical terminology or jargon.

First of all, what is anaphylaxis? What does the word mean? As with many medical words, it originates from the Greek language. ‘ana’ meaning ‘up’ and ‘phylaxis’ meaning ‘protection’.  So how does this word relate to a severe allergic reaction?  

To explain this, we need to know what is happening when someone has an anaphylactic episode.

Our bodies are full of different chemicals and anti bodies; we couldn’t live without them as they all work in unison to protect us throughout our lives.

Supposing that a person who is prone to severe allergic reactions has a particular sensitivity to nuts.  (There are many other things that can cause severe allergic reactions, but we will use nut allergy for this explanation)  He accidentally eats something which might only contain a trace element of nuts.

His body immune system, which is there to protect him, mistakenly thinks that he has just eaten something which is a threat to his body and can cause harm.  This causes a reaction in his body to release various chemicals, which in turn, stimulate the immune system to release even more chemicals.  It is the release of these chemicals that the body thinks will provide protection against the nuts he has just eaten. Hence we get the ‘up’ ‘protection’ or anaphylaxis.

 It is unfortunately a mistake on the body’s part to release these chemicals as they can now endanger his life, which is quite the opposite of what the immune system wanted to do, a paradox!

Professional first aid training is essential for the work place. If your company needs first aid
training -  www.firstaidtraining4u.com provides workplace first aid training courses in the North East of England.

Effortlessly Increase Your Search Engine Ranking
Publish Your Articles Here