s/o Where did all the food allergies come from?

[Anonymous]

its definitely a mystery, and you can't outsmart it entirely. My daughter ate everything - peanuts, eggs, dairy the works. Then at puberty suddenly developed anaphylactic reaction to some foods she had been eating her whole life.

[Anonymous]

I grew up on a farm and ate mostly meat and vegetables that we grew and some groceries that we bought from the store. We ate some processed foods and went out to eat several times a year.

At age 25 I moved to the city, at age 31 I developed a peanut allergy after eating them my whole life before that. And food allergies have been popping up for me rapidly since then, to weird things too - not just what are currently typical food allergies. It's frightening, but nothing seems to be helping it. (And the allergic responses are serious enough that I have to avoid these ingredients, not just tolerate sniffles or a stomach ache.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently the relative rates of different allergies vary by country. Israel has pretty few peanut allergies and lots of sesame allergies.

Really? Wow that's crazy about sesame. Don't they mix tahina in with breast milk or formula for their babies? Kidding but not entirely. That would go against the early exposure hypothesis anyway.

[Anonymous]

No one’s mentioned increased c-section rates. Something about vaginal birth is good for the baby’s gut, or so they say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Apparently the relative rates of different allergies vary by country. Israel has pretty few peanut allergies and lots of sesame allergies.

Really? Wow that's crazy about sesame. Don't they mix tahina in with breast milk or formula for their babies? Kidding but not entirely. That would go against the early exposure hypothesis anyway.

My pediatrician said there’s a theory they have lower rates of peanut allergy because if the first exposure to peanuts is boiled rather than roasted, you’re less likely to be allergic, and they feed their babies peanut puffs that have boiled peanut. It seems like there are a few things that are common allergens and depending on the order and format you’re exposed to them you may develop an allergy to different ones depending on your predisposition. Idk! I have a sesame allergy kid. I am not Israeli.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

Eczema is often a symptom of “true” allergies. And our allergist at Hopkins told us not to dismiss digestive issues as not allergies- they may not be IgE mediated but they could still be an allergic response.

My older child has tons of food allergies, though we have no family history. Younger child only has mild ones (no Epi pen required) and was part of a sibling study at JHU to figure out why allergies happen.

There is emerging research on the role of folic acid during pregnancy. It was new when my first child was born, and for my second child I made sure my prenatal only had folate, not folic acid (which is slightly different but serves the same purpose as folate).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

But food exposure doesn’t make sense. Before globalization our diets were way way narrower. Sure Asians have milk intolerance but it’s not like huge swaths of a society were allergic to foreign foods. Most Europeans I know loathe peanut butter and just eat hazelnuts. I never had a hazelnut until my 20s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

They were sickly and many died. Just like babies in developing countries today.

NP here. My 4YO has food allergies. In previous generations, he likely would have died long before showing symptoms of/being diagnosed with food allergies. Allergies/eczema/asthma are related and he was hospitalized several times for asthma when he was a baby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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

Doubt it. Pandemic made my kids spend WAY more time outside and so many hikes…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one’s mentioned increased c-section rates. Something about vaginal birth is good for the baby’s gut, or so they say.

My anecdata is:
DS1 - non-medicated vaginal birth; nut allergy
DS2 - C-section; no allergies

I realize I'm only 1 person, but it's very common for 1st borns to be allergic, and less common for 2nd.

I do think it relates to the gut though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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.

Oh I’ve had hand eczema (crazy itchy tiny weeping blisters, then dry flaky skin) since my teens. Who was your doctor, if I could narrow down a food that would be life changing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one’s mentioned increased c-section rates. Something about vaginal birth is good for the baby’s gut, or so they say.

My anecdata is:
DS1 - non-medicated vaginal birth; nut allergy
DS2 - C-section; no allergies

I realize I'm only 1 person, but it's very common for 1st borns to be allergic, and less common for 2nd.

I do think it relates to the gut though.

3 kids.

1 no allergies but sensitive skin
2 no allergies
3 tree nut allergy (anaphylactic) but can eat almonds and peanuts (which we fed since early age).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Simple. Most of the food we now consume is not whole. It’s all be genetically engineered in some way robbing it of nutrients.

Wow. You really followed up that “simple” with a staggeringly dumb take. Pulled directly from your ass.

It is anything but simple. The exponential growth in allergies and other autoimmune disorders is just about the least well understood phenomenon in medicine right now. The foremost experts on this stuff only have unproven hypotheses. And even the most agreed upon of those—hygiene theory—is at best incomplete. It leaves many holes and doesn’t explain all kinds of variations.

[Anonymous]

Most of the gluten allergies here are actual sensitivities to the niacin thats used in wheat flour production. European flour has none or a lot less. So many people sensitive/allergic to gluten here can eat european made flour and pasta (not the kind for export but the kind sold there). I have half a dizen friends who can eat bred etc in france and italy but not here.
My mom was lactose intolerant and suffered low level bloating and gut issues all her life as a kid. Finally at 20 something she just stopped drinking milk and dropped most milk products except cheese and she was much much better. Got tested in her 40s and it was obvious

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

But food exposure doesn’t make sense. Before globalization our diets were way way narrower. Sure Asians have milk intolerance but it’s not like huge swaths of a society were allergic to foreign foods. Most Europeans I know loathe peanut butter and just eat hazelnuts. I never had a hazelnut until my 20s.

My understanding is that the predisposition to allergies/asthma/eczema is partly genetic and partly a product of the immune system not having as much to do (we have way lower parasite loads than many people in less developed countries, for instance), but that earlier exposure to specific allergens is associated with lower incidence of that allergy. I don’t know the stats off the top of my head, but the rise in developed world food allergies and other autoimmune issues has been pretty sharp and pretty recent. It would be interesting to look at it next to the rise in obesity; even lab animals are fatter than they used to be, which raises the idea of some sort of environmental contaminant. (There’s a whole blog called Slime Mold Time Mold about this if you’re curious.)