Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Are there studies saying there's been a rapid increase in allergies? My first thought is that no one heard about it, because... it ... was... the... 70s. No internet to google everything. No internet to hear about nonstop allergies. You'd either have to read about it, hear it on the radio, or from word of mouth. My thoughts.
I have heard that having a infant eat certain things, like peanuts, milk, etc, before they're a year old, can cause an allergic reaction to the item. I don't know how accurate it is, though. I have zero allergies, so I really don't know anything nor have an anecdotal feedback.
I have a feeling that very few people are really allergic to peanuts, most probably have an aversion to them. While there are some people who do have life-threatening reactions to them, that number is small. That being said, I do wonder how people who have such life-threatening reactions to peanuts live very long. How do they survive trips to the grocery store if people are buying peanut products and the packaging breaks and they have their food items on there? Allergies are also trendy. Look at how many people are all of a sudden allergic to gluten. Again, I'm not saying that there are not some people who have this problem, but I question if it is really that high.
You made me think it could also revolve around the "health food movement" we have going on. While gluten allergies seem common today, it could be because it was never tested for back then. Natural health professionals just somehow "discover" hundreds of new ailments that other professionals choose to ignore. I don't know if this means the NHP's are hacks (I don't think that), or if it's just all so new and new way of looking at our health. I personally think a lot of the food we're buying these days is screwing us up (cancer rate increases) and that the only solution most doctors give us to take drugs (as if we don't have alternatives... which we do... but not free ones, and not enough studies to back up Natural Health Cases b/c scientists don't give enough crap to study them. I'm sure, that's not where they make their money).
Maybe because the children tended to die young from the diseases we now immunize against - measles, mumps, whooping cough. Not much time to see an allergy worsen to the point of anaphylaxis.
My mom, who was born in 1941, lived the barefoot life for a very long time. She is the third of five children, and developed a serious autoimmune disease at the age of 60. Had she gotten it at 40, she likely would have died, as they were just finding out how to treat what had been a 100% fatal disease. Even in 2001, she nearly didn't make it, as Wegener's Granulotmatosis is a very rare form of vasculitis.
My aunt and my mom both have dead thyroids. There's arthritis (both osteo and rheumatoid) in the family, as well as lymph edema. The arthritic disorders are the only ones that seem to have been passed down; my aunt, my sister, and I all have rheumatoid arthritis, and I have osteoarthritis due to hypermobility. I know we all ate plenty of dirt. My mom has a story of me sitting outside with the dog and a bag of dog food, sharing equally. One piece for the dog, one piece for me. (hork) I believe I was 3 or 4 years old.
Early death to the weak ones could account for some of it but not all, probably not most. I truly think it has more to do with the quality of the foods that kids are eating today--soda, junk food, MacDonald's (oh, I already said junk food), microwaved meals. Most of it has chemicals and pesticides for the body to cope with.
Also could be something to do with the introduction of antibiotics which can produce yeast infections that the body would have to fight.
Then again, the air is not as clean and the water is not as pure--humans are required to fight against a lot more than they did many years ago. Sure, some strong ones will always survive but many are weakened and become sick and do not die.
I developed severe allergies as an adult. I did have a lot of antibiotics as a kid. I did get immunized for whooping cough, smallpox and diptheria. We didn't have measles or mumps shots in those days. We also had most of our food fresh from the garden but airplanes used to come over and spray DDT for mosquitoes. I can't make any sense of why I got sick. My mother did say she was allergic to apples when she was a kid and a few of her sisters had terrible allergies. My dad suddenly became allergic to bee stings when he was about age 70. These were people born around 1920--who knows what made them allergic.
These were people born around 1920--who knows what made them allergic.
Quote:
A long time ago I was involved in a discussion about allergies and the outcome was that the older people, who had been born before antibiotics had few allergies. We allergy sufferers had been brought up with antibiotics.
That is wrong. I am well over 80, and I have known people with allergies all my life. Some could drive by an alfalfa field when it was in bloom, and they would have a terrible allergic attack. Others would be allergic to other natural things. I have known people that were allergic to about some type of food.
My worst allergy which makes me very sick, is sea food. They now know there is only one fish, that does not have a certain type of oil and that is Salmon. I could eat Salmon 3 times a day and never get sick. On the other hand all other fish and sea food made me sick. The worst is shell fish, which has the most of that type of oil. I remember going to a high end restaurant for my wife and I to take her younger brother and his new wife out for dinner. The salad had a small amount of finely chopped shrimp but it was hidden by the dressing. In about 15 minutes, I was throwing up all over the place and took 2 days to get over it.
Quote:
Then again, the air is not as clean and the water is not as pure--humans are required to fight against a lot more than they did many years ago.
Wrong. Back a few decades they did not know how to make drinking water pure as they do today. The city water systems are purified, and much safer from infections than they were back then.
Today many people do not suffer as they used to. Today there are medications, and shots to help people live with their allergies. There was nothing back then.
I agree. I had a student who almost died. He was always careful but there were peanuts in a sauce
and he always asked about any foods when he was out, they assured him there were no peanuts
and he ended up in the hospital ER. There are also many people allergic to shell fish. My son is one of them. He was never fond of
shell fish but on occasion would have a few pieces of shrimp. Around the age of 12, his
throat would swell up and it only got worse as he got older. Why, I don't know.
I am allergic to shellfish as well and the reason is the amount of Iodine. Crabs, Lobsters or any other seafood with a shell seems to have a excessive amount of Iodine which is toxic to your liver in high amounts.
You basically are being "poisoned" by what you ate and people on this thread who say it is the "Wussification" of America? are being totally ignorant about "allergies" and how they can kill you with a bad reaction.
Heard that babies who get breast feed get less allergies , so are more babies getting the cows milk because mothers need to get back to work and make a living then sit around and feed them breast milk which is needed for the development of immunities of this world
Heard that babies who get breast feed get less allergies , so are more babies getting the cows milk because mothers need to get back to work and make a living then sit around and feed them breast milk which is needed for the development of immunities of this world
A lot of women pump their breast milk and refrigerate it so their children can drink breast milk even if they are at work and not able to be the one feeding the infant.
The body is always changing, says my doctor. He is right, from our family's experience. My father could eat all the shellfish he wanted until one day it made him sick. He had developed an allergy to shellfish.
I am unable to eat gluten. Oh, I found out. I vomited and had horrible diarrhea one day after eating pasta. It went on non-stop for a full day, and into the next day. When I say vomiting and diarrhea, you have no idea just how bad it was! As I look back, the symptoms I started to develop over the course of a period of time were ones my mother had as well. Back then, however, nobody heard of gluten intolerance. I didn't until my doctor diagnosed me. I was also diagnosed with other auto-immune problems. I suspect that Lyme disease may have played a role in this somehow, as well as genetics.
The body is always changing, says my doctor. He is right, from our family's experience. My father could eat all the shellfish he wanted until one day it made him sick. He had developed an allergy to shellfish.
I am unable to eat gluten. Oh, I found out. I vomited and had horrible diarrhea one day after eating pasta. It went on non-stop for a full day, and into the next day. When I say vomiting and diarrhea, you have no idea just how bad it was! As I look back, the symptoms I started to develop over the course of a period of time were ones my mother had as well. Back then, however, nobody heard of gluten intolerance. I didn't until my doctor diagnosed me. I was also diagnosed with other auto-immune problems. I suspect that Lyme disease may have played a role in this somehow, as well as genetics.
In her forties, my mother had swordfish for dinner at a restaurant one night. She broke out in hives and had difficulty breathing. The doctor told her never to eat fish again. The only thing she noticed before that was when she ate tuna, she would get a headache and feel as if it was not digesting in her stomach.
One sister and one brother also developed fish allergies in their forties. I can eat it with no problem.
Quote: A long time ago I was involved in a discussion about allergies and the outcome was that the older people, who had been born before antibiotics had few allergies. We allergy sufferers had been brought up with antibiotics.
-------------------------------------- That is wrong. I am well over 80, and I have known people with allergies all my life. Some could drive by an alfalfa field when it was in bloom, and they would have a terrible allergic attack. Others would be allergic to other natural things. I have known people that were allergic to about some type of food.
---------------------------------------
Not wrong. I'm referring to the discussion group and that was the outcome for those of us who discussed it. Of course people had allergies before that. I even said that my mother was always allergic to apples and was born about 1920. Her older sisters had terrible allergies--I said that too. They would not have had antibiotics until they were adults.
---------------------------------------
Quote: Then again, the air is not as clean and the water is not as pure--humans are required to fight against a lot more than they did many years ago.
--------------------------------------- Wrong. Back a few decades they did not know how to make drinking water pure as they do today. The city water systems are purified, and much safer from infections than they were back then.
---------------------------------------
I disagree--safer from infections, yes, safer from chemicals, no. Even I can remember drinking pure water that came from a spring. Today those sources of spring water that people used have been closed off due to pollution. It was usually somewhere out in the country and there would be a hose rigged up so that people could bring containers and get pure water. We used to take empty milk jugs. I lived for almost a year back in the early 1970s in a house where the well had run dry--we had access to pure water for free. Towns have had to shut down the access to those springs due to pollution. BTW, that spring water didn't even contain chlorine, it was just plain water.
The air is a lot more polluted than it used to be. In some industrial areas it has been cleaned up and it's better, but in general it's worse. I think it all takes its toll on the human body.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
