Hey, welcome back to Seeker+ and our series on allergies.
This is part two.
In part one we talked about how the immune system, specifically IgE antibodies, flip
out when they see some pollen or cat dander and cause a cornucopia of discomfort and sadness.
Definitely check that out if you’ve ever wondered why your body sabotages you when
spring rolls around each year.
Of course, plenty of you don’t have allergies, but that doesn’t mean you won’t some time
in the future.
So, let’s talk about why some people have allergies and others don’t.
A surprisingly large percentage of people have allergies to at least one substance.
By one estimate about 50 million people in the United States do, so that’s about 15%
of the population.
That percentage has been on the rise for the last 50 years and it looks like it’ll keep
trending upward.
Generally allergies are more common in children, but people of any age can suddenly discover
a fun new allergy to something.
Environmental allergies can develop with age, and likewise allergies can be outgrown.
Actually, quite a lot of kids with milk or egg allergies eventually outgrow them, as
many as 60-80%.
Then they become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
Some allergies rear their ugly heads again though after years of remission.
And maddeningly, we’re not sure why.
But there do seem to be risk factors that make a person more likely to develop allergies.
Some of them are genetic, and some are environmental.
So let’s start with genetics.
In an effort to see how big a role they play, scientists have studied twins.
For fraternal twins when one has a peanut allergy, the other also has that allergy only
about 7% of the time.
But when the twins are identical, that allergy is shared 64% of the time.
That’s a big increase that points to genes being a factor.
A person is also more likely to have an allergy if their parents do too, but strangely, a
child won’t necessarily have the same allergy as their parents.
If someone is allergic to bees, their kid has a greater chance of also being allergic
to something, but it could be nuts or cats instead.
A child might be more at risk of developing allergies depending on how they came into
the world, which is the case for those born by cesarean section.
Some researchers have suggested this is because the baby wasn’t exposed to their birthing
parent’s microbiome during vaginal birth, but at this point, we really don’t know.
Whether it’s better to expose someone to a possible allergen at a younger age or avoid
them for as long as possible is up for debate.
Maybe a pregnant person eating peanut butter will help the baby’s body recognize peanuts
as delicious and nutritious, or maybe it could trigger a peanut allergy.
We just don’t know.
It’s also possible that an allergy doesn’t appear until adulthood because it’s been
slowly building up over time.
Exposure to new allergens later in life could trigger new reactions.
Things like moving to a new area with different flora or getting a pet cat.
Now you might think some new developments in your body are allergies but they might not be.
For example you could become lactose intolerant as you age and find yourself unable to digest
milk, cheese, and ice cream.
In which case, I am so sorry for your loss.
But while a dairy allergy is the result of an immune system whoopsie daisy, lactose intolerance
is the result of a person’s body no longer producing enough of the enzyme needed to break
down the sugar in milk.
A food intolerance is triggered only if a person eats that specific food, but an allergic
reaction can happen if a person eats something that was prepared in a place their allergen
was present.
It’s why you see “this product was prepared in a factory that also processes nuts” on
some candy bar wrappers, even if the candy bar itself is nut-free.
You know, like the good ones are.
Looking at you, almond joy.
Some things that look like allergic reactions may just be psychosomatic.
For example, some people claim to be allergic to WiFi.
Or they say they’re sensitive to radiation from electronic devices in general.
People pointing the finger at 5G cell networks as potential sources of bodily harm have made
the news a lot in recent years, but the first reports of what is known today as electrohypersensitivity
go all the way back to the mid 1900s.
That was long before the millimeter waves of modern cell nodes, and those instances were instead attributed
to much longer wavelength microwaves.
Today sufferers attest to getting headaches, nausea, palpitations, fatigue, and rashes,
and their symptoms are very much real.
Sweden does recognize electrohypersensitivity as a functional impairment, but not necessarily
because it’s caused by electronics.
More so because whatever the cause, some people do genuinely struggle with it.
Still, there’s no strong evidence linking their symptoms to electromagnetic frequencies
given off by cell phones and routers.
Part of the problem is yes, these symptoms sound like they could be from an allergic
reaction, but they also could be attributed to a host of other causes.
Remember an allergy is an overblown response by the immune system, and what is it exactly
their immune systems would be attacking?
What are their overzealous IgE antibodies latching onto if the symptoms are caused by
electromagnetic waves?
Multiple studies have also found that people who swear they’re sensitive to electromagnetic
frequencies couldn’t accurately say when they’re being exposed to them and when they
were exposed to a “sham” signal the researchers had devised.
These could be instances of misattribution and really their symptoms have another cause.
Or they’re caused by the nocebo effect.
You’ve heard of the placebo effect, where people think some medication they’re taking
is making them feel better when really it’s not doing anything?
The nocebo effect is like that, but with negative symptoms.
But let’s say you actually have an allergy.
You’re exposed to some antigen and your immune system goes a little overboard, you break
out in hives or your nose runs or your eyes puff up or whatever the case may be.
Perhaps you’ve been dealing with it for years and you just can’t take the constant sneezing
anymore even though you love your cat Bootsie more than you’ve ever loved anything?
Is there hope for you?
Possibly even a cure?
We’ll cover that in our third and final episode of the series.
But first I want to know about you. Have you developed an allergy as you aged?
Or are you one of the lucky ones who actually found you weren’t allergic to something
anymore?
Let us know in the comments and let us know if it runs in your family, I’m doing
a very unscientific poll down there.
By the way, if you’ve never had an allergy you keep that to yourself, I don’t need you rubbing
it in, I do that enough myself when I furiously rub my bloodshot eyes each day I wake up covered
in cat hair.
This whole series is starting to feel very much directed at my cat isn’t it?
Anyway, I’ll see you for the next episode of Seeker+.