How Skin Allergies Happen

As summer approaches, many of us know to be on the lookout for certain plants that our skin doesn't like. When immune cells that we carry in our epidermis react adversely to something we come into contact with, the result is allergic contact dermatitis, otherwise known as a skin allergy. Learn more about them from this video by Scientific American.

Many things can act as allergens, things that make our skin treat it like an invader that has to be fought. Cosmetics, poison ivy, and latex are just a few of the things people might react to. That reaction is the immune response, normally an important function in our body that stops illness. But in the case of allergy, that response goes awry.