s/o Where did all the food allergies come from?
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Anonymous
| It seems like there are so many children with nut, dairy, soy, etc. allergies these days, way more than ever in history. What causes this? What did children with egg or dairy allergies do 100 years ago? |
Anonymous
| No one knows why the incidence of allergic disease is on the rise. There are several hypotheses. Reputable studies have been conducted to show it is not simply diagnosis that has risen, the actual incidence has increased in the populations studied. One of the most compelling hypotheses is that without many germs to fight, the immune system begins to overreact. This is called the hygiene hypothesis. There is evidence that children who grew up on farms are more protected than those who grow up in the cities and suburbs. However, this is just a hypothesis at this point. The current thinking is to expose your child to as many foods as early as possible. My child has multiple food allergies and when she was small the prevailing advice was to avoid foods religiously, I wish we had known better then. However, I know science changes and our knowledge continues to evolve. Oral immunotherapy studies have gone well and may be a possibility for a cure. |
Anonymous
| Children don't get a dirty younger any more. My mom and dad kept things super clean for me and I have the most allergies. Also, kids would just die younger (choke to death) or have low level allergies their whole lives and no one would care. I'm allergic to both wheat and dairy, they cause digestive issues and eczema for me, that I've had since the age of 3. Stoped eating them at 40 and the issues stopped. No one had ever thought to check. |
Anonymous
But are digestive issues and eczema really allergies or are they intolerance? I would consider those to be an intolerance not a true allergic response. Not referring to PP, but intolerances are often incorrectly called allergies. But true allergies are on the rise as well, no doubt. |
Anonymous
| Probably the result of more and more people being able to survive in rich and developing countries. Before people with these genetic difference would die off before they could bread more weak people. |
Anonymous
The incidence of food allergies has increased during a period of time where genetic differences are not likely to be the culprit. What I mean is that food allergies have increased in one or two generations. That is not enough time for a genetic difference to become dominant. We do not understand the immune system very well. There is a lot going on outside of our genes. |
Anonymous
My allergist says digestive issues can be allergic reactions. Allergies are responses mediated by the immune system, usually though not always IgE. Intolerances do not involve the immune system. I always thought I had a shellfish intolerance but it turns out to be an allergy and now I’m supposed to carry an epipen in case it gets really bad. I usually don’t. Eczema is not technically an allergic reaction but it is frequently comorbid with asthma and eczema. |
Anonymous
| Simple. Most of the food we now consume is not whole. It’s all be genetically engineered in some way robbing it of nutrients. |
Anonymous
As best we can tell, the predisposition to allergies is genetic but the specific allergen isn’t. There’s no “peanut allergy” gene, there are “more likely to get asthma/eczema/allergies” genes. So we think there is probably something developmental or environmental that makes kids more likely to develop those issues now than a few generations ago. Also what the other person said, two generations is way too short for selection to work like that. |
Anonymous
Wouldn’t that lead to malnutrition rather than allergies? |
Anonymous
Both dairy and wheat came back on my allergy blood IGE test at the allergist office as allergies, along with shellfish, which makes my face swell. So, yes, I have been officially diagnosed with allergies by an MD 40 years after I started showing symptoms,.which were ignored. It's kinda nice not to have eczema over my hands and feet, coated in steroid cream, and not have explosive IBS for the first time in years. A lot of these things were ignored and shrugged off in the past as "not really allergies." Now you can test for some. |
Anonymous
They were sickly and many died. Just like babies in developing countries today. |
Anonymous
| Our food supply has a lot of issues. But also our kids grow up in too sterile of environments. I can’t even imagine how bad allergies are going to be for pandemic babies. I think they are going to be some pretty unhealthy kids |
Anonymous
Fascinating! Like a PP mentioned, I was born in 1970 and had eczema beginning at 6 month’s supposedly when my mom switched from BF to Enfamil. From then on it was tomatoes and chocolate and seasonally (winter) that I’d be plagued with eczema. Then at age 4 I developed an anaphylactic (although didn’t know the term) to fish. 2 ER trips before being told to take then-prescription Benadryl if I had a reaction and to avoid all fish. My 3 DC all have anaphylactic allergies to peanuts/cashews/walnuts and youngest who previously had no allergies (age 16) just had a scary reaction/anaphylactic to a dye in off brand Gatorade. |
Anonymous
| Apparently the relative rates of different allergies vary by country. Israel has pretty few peanut allergies and lots of sesame allergies. |