Types of Allergy: Food, Skin, Respiratory and More

Types of Allergy: Food, Skin, Respiratory and More

"Allergy" covers a family of conditions sorted by trigger and by the body system involved. Knowing which type you are dealing with shapes everything - testing, treatment, and how careful daily life must be.

The Main Types

• Allergic rhinitis (hay fever): pollen (seasonal) or dust mites, mould, dander (year-round). Sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes.
• Food allergy: immune reactions to specific foods - peanut, tree nut, milk, egg, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish are the usual suspects. Range from itching to anaphylaxis.
• Skin allergies: urticaria (hives), angioedema (deeper swelling), allergic contact dermatitis (nickel, cosmetics, latex), and atopic eczema flares.
• Drug allergy: antibiotics and painkillers most often; can be severe. Documented drug allergies belong in every medical record.
• Insect sting allergy: bee and wasp venom - the classic anaphylaxis trigger.
• Allergic asthma: airways tightening on allergen exposure; often partners with rhinitis and eczema.

The Atopic March

Doctors recognise a pattern: infant eczema often leads to childhood food allergy, then hay fever and asthma. Not every child walks the whole march, but one atopic condition flags risk for the others, per NHS allergies guidance.

The Classical Classification

Ayurveda sorted hypersensitivity by expression and dosha rather than by trigger:

• Sheetapitta - cold-triggered wheals; Vata-led
• Udarda - heavier, itchier patches; Kapha-led
• Kotha - eruptions tied to Ama and suppressed vomiting; digestion-led
• Pratishyaya - the nasal catarrh group, in Vataja, Pittaja, Kaphaja, and chronic Sannipataja forms
• Kshudra Kushta types (Vicarcika, Dadru, Kitibha) and Visarpa - allergic-eczematous and spreading skin disorders, classified in Charaka (Chikitsa Sthana 7) and Sushruta by which tissues - skin, blood, muscle, lymph - are vitiated

This is a symptom-and-constitution taxonomy from centuries before allergens were identified. It does not map one-to-one onto modern types, and it cannot tell a peanut allergy from eczema - modern allergy testing does that. Its lasting value is the habit of individualising: same wheals, different body, different care.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which allergy type is most dangerous? Any type can produce anaphylaxis, but food, drug, and sting allergies carry the highest risk of sudden severe reactions.

Can you have more than one type? Commonly - rhinitis plus eczema plus asthma is a classic combination in atopic people.

Is contact dermatitis a true allergy? Yes, but a delayed-type (T-cell) allergy, different from the immediate IgE kind - which is why patch testing, not blood tests, finds it.

Do classical types like Sheetapitta still get diagnosed? Ayurvedic practitioners still use them to guide constitutional treatment. They complement, and never replace, allergen identification.