Wow. What a nice article. Well done.
I used to have Asthma. That's an allergy, or not really?
deadly peanut allergy which will kill you on the spot if you put your lips on even a badly washed spoon which was two days ago in brief contact with peanut butter.
How can someone be allergic to peanuts? What is wrong with his body to reject it so badly?
Thank you so much! Asthma is per se not an allergy. It is a chronic (permanent) inflammation of the airways, which can every now and then cause them to react and become spastic (tight). The cause of that inflammation / irritation can be an allergy (to pollen for example), but there are other possible causes.
As to your second question, it's a very good one with a very complex answer which I won't dare to try to explain, at least without a lot of prior research. Basically the immune system reacts to peanuts the same way it would react to a parasite, but it's not even 100% known why. The part that is known is complex immunology which I don't dare to get into now (maybe in a future article).
Interesting. And is there any explanation for it to have gone away, when I was in my mid-twenties? I never needed the pump again. I don't even own one, these days. 😂
Allergies sometimes get better and may even disappear with progressive exposure / with time. Sometimes they may get worse though. If the asthma is allergic and the allergy starts fading, the asthma fades too, as its cause is not there anymore. Consider yourself lucky!