
A Striking Rise in Serious Allergy Cases - jpelecanos
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-striking-rise-in-serious-allergy-cases-1503327581
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remarkEon
I think I've mentioned this story here before...

I grew up with _horrible_ seasonal allergies (pollen and the like), to the
point where I even got allergy shots and was heavily medicated. Visiting my
cousins on the farm in South Dakota was awful if I didn't have a heavy dose of
Claritin or Benadryl, which would basically put me to sleep. Fast forward
several years to after college when I was in the Army...I found myself in
Ranger School were most medications weren't allowed. So basically I just
gutted it out when I started Darby (phase I of III). For the first 72 hours, I
experienced the worst allergy attack of my life to the point that I didn't
know if I could continue. For reasons that to this day I _cannot_ explain I
woke up on day 4 (or 5, I guess) and had no symptoms. None.

To this day I require no medication and have no allergy symptoms to speak of.

Edit: if there are any Allergists reading, I grew up in the Midwest and was
the child of two parents who both grew up on what were basically farms. I was
born in an urban center and would only experience a non-urban environment for
fleeting weeks in the summer at Boy Scout camp and the like.

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wslh
Just a personal touch: my two daughters had food allergies (e.g. milk, soy).
The second one had food allergies to almost everything in a way that you think
you are cursed or crazy because there is a lack of research literature in this
front. These were the kind of allergies related to immaturity and after the
first year they were mostly solved. The "interesting" thing is that for the
unsolved ones you can see behavior changes related to food.

If you are a parent it is important to write a personal ledger to keep the
daily food interactions and think scientifically because medicine doesn't have
solutions right now.

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wanderr
I developed allergies and asthma seemingly out of the blue at around 8 years
old, and my allergies grew in scope over time. At first I was just allergic to
cats, but eventually that became all animals with fur or feathers, tree pollen
and dairy.

It's just speculation but in my case I think the factors at play were:
Genetics - nobody in my family has allergies but eczema and psoriasis are in
the family and that can lead to higher chances of developing allergies Smoking
- my mother smoked while pregnant and for years after I was born. Grandparents
were chain smokers too so I was exposed to tons of second hand smoke
Antibiotics - I don't know why or exactly at what age but there was a time
when I was constantly getting ear infections (doctors often remark on the
scars when they look in my ears), so I was on antibiotics all the time. If
there is a natural balance of fungi and bacteria in our bodies, that was
surely thrown off.

Today my asthma is mostly cured, I keep an inhaler just in case but use it
less than once a year, but my allergies haven't improved at all.

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terpua
I've had serious allergies for over 20 years and it had gotten worse over time
especially when near an ocean (had to stop diving since it was near impossible
to equalize with all the excess mucus).

But I recently became vegan and in about 2 weeks time, the allergies went
away. I also have a friend who has asthma and when she went vegan, it all but
disappeared. There's a lot of documentation about this but doctors don't give
this advice probably because nutrition and prevention aren't a big part of
their training.

But for anyone suffering, give it a try for a couple of weeks. The quality of
life gained is awesome.

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Beltiras
Could this be more claims instead of a higher incidence? The uptick coincides
with the ACA, possibly with a little lag.

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vmateixeira
Yes, possibly.

For the chances of a higher incidence I would say the way we raise our
children these days is very different from when our parents raised us.

A lot of the food is processed, many environments were children play are close
to sterile, etc.

This difference would probably be big enough to be noticed on a 10 year
window.

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irrational
Just a data point, but we have 7 kids and no allergies among them. We eat
little processed foods and after school/weekends/summer the kids spend almost
all their time outside. The downside is it takes longer to cook meals than
just buy something pre-made and the kids need a bath every night because they
come home filthy. The upside is no allergies?

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cs702
According to the organization mentioned in the article, food allergies have
been on the rise in the US for more than two decades.

Here are some facts and statistics they've published online which I find both
shocking and illuminating:

[https://www.foodallergy.org/facts-and-
stats](https://www.foodallergy.org/facts-and-stats)

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arikrak
Once people started worrying about allergies, they started avoiding various
foods, which caused more allergies...

[http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/02/23/388450621/fee...](http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/02/23/388450621/feeding-
babies-foods-with-peanuts-appears-to-prevent-allergies)

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singularity2001
Were there any new chemicals allowed/introduced in the food industry in the
last 5 years?

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adrr
Its not going to be chemical as it would be worldwide. Its more likely how we
raise our kids. One interesting hypothesis is that we are too clean, we
machine wash everything, we slather our hands with hand sanitizer before we
touch babies, our children have stopped playing outside in the dirt and now
sit on the couch with an ipad.

Further reading: [http://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2015/02/23/38755328...](http://www.npr.org/sections/health-
shots/2015/02/23/387553285/kids-allergies-and-a-possible-downside-to-squeaky-
clean-dishes)

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heurist
I was able to eat bread my whole life up to last year. Now whenever I eat it I
get so tired I have to sleep. I played outside all the time as a kid...
Something else is going on. Also, rural area report more claims than cities.
You'd think cities would be "cleaner".

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irrational
Maybe it's just part of getting old? I've never been lactose intolerant, but
around the middle of my 40s I found that if I went to bed after eating a big
bowl of ice cream I would wake up with heartburn in the middle of the night.
I've learned to pop a few antacids after eating my ice cream before bed.

~~~
heurist
God I hope not, I'm only 28 and if this is a sign of things to come I'm not
sure how I'll cope...

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vmateixeira
Link without paywall, anyone?

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Beltiras
Put this bookmarklet on your bookmarks bar:

    
    
      javascript:window.location.href='https://m.facebook.com/l.php?u='+encodeURIComponent(window.location.href);

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darkstar999
What is their logic in allowing Facebook traffic? Do they have a partnership
or something?

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arikrak
The can't tell if someone's a subscriber when the person opens a link from
facebook on their phone, so they just allow all access from facebook.

(It's also possible they want to encourage sharing on social networks.)

