Allergies: the scourge of modern life?

[helvella]

This might seem to be off-topic, and in many ways, it is. However we do see an awful lot of people here reporting that they have suffered allergies, or what appear to be the symptoms of allergic reactions, since being hypothyroid. Some already were sensitive, and seem more so. For others, these reactions are completely new to them.

This article also includes what diogenes referred to the other day - the impact of delayed weaning.

Allergies: the scourge of modern life?

To anyone from Generation X or older, it often feels like food allergies are far more common today than in their youth. While they remember them being rare or nonexistent in their school days, their own children will have classmates with allergies or they may have one themselves.

According to the Food Standards Agency, estimates suggest that about 5-8% of children and 1-2% of adults are affected by food allergies in the UK. The recent headlines about fatal allergic reactions, such as that of two Pret a Manger customers, heighten the impression that food allergies are more commonplace.

So is the impression that they are increasing correct and what is causing it? And what has gone so wrong with our bodies that we might be killed by something as seemingly harmless as a sesame seed?

Since 1906, when the word “allergy” was first used, the number of those affected has been climbing. Asthma has probably always been a problem but if ancient records of it are anything to go by, it was also exceptionally rare.

Rest of article available here:

theguardian.com/society/201...

[Treepie]

My eldest daugter had eczema from birth . Increasing urbanisation will increse the problem.Our green spaces are being lost ,wildlife diversity is lost.

herbicides and insecticides reduce insect populations and add to the decline of their predator species . Some bird species have reduced 70-90 % over the last 20-30 years.

As a child I roamed woods and fields often alone.How many parents would allow that now ! The fields are now built on.

We recently learned that bird watching and similar activity in the countryside is good for mental health. I am not very hopeful for our grandchildrens opportunities to be in green spaces.

[Mamapea1 in reply to Treepie]

I feel the same...so terribly sad. 🌻🐝 x

[TSH110]

Fascinating article - Thanks for posting.

I fail to comprehend this absurd fashion for regarding sunlight as the enemy at a time when so many people spend so little time outdoors working in offices etc. Yet skin cancer is rare in those who work outdoors. It is interesting sunlight is mentioned here as a factor in allergy perhaps it plays an even greater role than implied in the article, given urbanisation leads to lots of people with indoor jobs and a lack of opportnity to get into sunlight. I’m with Turner: the sun is God!

[Mamapea1 in reply to TSH110]

Me too! Sun block cream is also a mystery to me😳why would you stay indoors all year round, for work or leisure (gyms are another mystery) and then pile on the factor 50 and sit in blazing sun abroad ~ or even at home, for a week?? You're bound to miss a bit, surely, and not have the natural protection?

I have one particularly fair skinned offspring, and I pushed her out in all weathers to increase melanin ~ she loved being outdoors anyway. If she warmed up too much, she put on a cheesecloth top and/or other cover ups. I had to keep my eye on her, but so far, so good. Aged 20, she is 'cured' of sunburn, although care must still be taken, obviously.

She now goes a lovely golden brown colour as opposed to the red/white she started out with, and of course benefits from the life saving benefits of Vit D. ☀️ Even this summer, she didn't burn. The last time she burnt was many years ago (aged 7) whilst holidaying with her sisters in Florida ~ her shoulders got it while she was swimming in the pool and she didn't notice the heat.

I used to just drape muslin nappies (remember those?) or netting over my infants when they were little, to let some light through, and although the others don't have the pale skin, they were all fine. I witnessed an affro Caribbean woman slathering sunblock cream on her (somewhat beautiful) baby this summer ~ the mind boggles.😳

In times gone by, most of us would be outdoors all year round, increasing melatonin levels from the varying sun levels throughout the seasons, and getting down and dirty with the soil/animals and improving our proper and natural immune responses too, by the looks of these studies. x

[TSH110 in reply to Mamapea1]

I agree very fair skins might need more protection - it seems common sense not to roast yourself red raw the body’s way of telling you you have overdone it. Perhaps it is an attempt at supercompensation doing two weeks of scorching somewhere hot when you have been starved of daylight all year, small wonder they crave the sun. I am impressed with your approach to your daughter and sunlight it seems to have worked too a little often building up natural protection seems a far better approach than trying to stop a natural life and health giving phenomenon ever reaching them. I know irradiation of blood kills bugs which is effectively what sunbathing achieves. I hardly ever get ill working outside and if I do it is in the dead of winter.

[posthinking01 in reply to Mamapea1]

I envy anyone who loves the sun - I hate it - with Lupus my body does not have the ability to cope with the acceleration of the immune system the sun causes- that's why everyone feels good on holiday it gets everything revving up. I have to keep out of the sun and spent 8 weeks indoors due to the heatwave this summer. Never mind 'eh - enjoy it everyone just wish I could.

[penny in reply to posthinking01]

I have read that Dr. Coimbra successfully treats lupus and other autoimmune diseases with high doses of Vit D.

[posthinking01 in reply to penny]

Yes I have heard the same - Vitamin D is a pro hormone not actually a vitamin - low progesterone can also cause auto immune issues too. You have to be careful with D though because it can cause kidney stones and also softening of the bones - the exact opposite of too little D - if you get too much.

[penny in reply to posthinking01]

The Coimbra Protocol is carried out under medical supervision and can be of 250,000iu of Vit D per day. Dr. Coimbra has been successfully treating people for 20 years or so. Calcium intake is limited and there are regular blood tests. On a much lower dose I take Vit K2 Mk7 and magnesium, the former prevents calcification of soft tissue. I have not read of any issues with Dr. Coimbra’s high dose protocol but have read of many, many successes.

[posthinking01 in reply to penny]

I will take a look - I was actually given the same dosage under medical supervision a few years back but it didn't agree with me as I couldn't metabolise such a high dose as I have kidney issues too - agree re magnesium - I am a mag loser - calcium becomes too high which is dangerous for the arteries.

[Mamapea1 in reply to posthinking01]

Oh dear! That's awful😔....mind you, my temperature regulation is not what it was, so I'm not out in it as much as I'd like, but at least I can get some. Poor you 😘x

[Cooper27]

I think this may be due to mums changing diets over the years as well, and increased antibiotic use. They've learned that when babies are born, they get a bit of mum's gut bacteria on their lips, which then forms their own gut bacteria. If mum's bacteria are poor, then baby's will be too.

Mum also needs to eat a varied diet while breastfeeding, because it'll pass on to kids in breast milk.

Because my partner has coeliac disease, our house is completely gluten free, but I probably would have to reintroduce gluten to my diet if I fell pregnant, to avoid the kid developing any problems with it...

[Mamapea1 in reply to Cooper27]

Yes I think you're right ~ a varied diet when breast feeding is essential. Also people don't breast feed for long enough, and although there's talk of early weaning, babies naturally wean at different ages ~ they soon let you know when😊.

Also weaning a bottle fed baby is different from weaning a breast fed one ~ the breast fed one is still getting bits of the mothers diet.

Way too many C sections being performed too, once considered a serious operation to save the life of mother and/or child, most are performed these days for no 'good' reason ~ many at the request of the mother😳 x

[Cooper27 in reply to Mamapea1]

True - of the people I know who've had kids in the last 5 years, about 40% have been C-sections. A few have simply been because the mum is dainty (maybe 5ft) but the husband has been a well built 6ft, so they presume the baby will be a very painful birth.

I heard these days they take a cotton bud and smear a little bit of mum's poo on the babies lips if it's a C-section birth...

[Mamapea1 in reply to Cooper27]

Wow! That's amazing...so many sections! You'd have thought with all the up to date scanning these days, they would be able to judge the sizes quite accurately. Although they told my eldest daughter she was having a small baby with her first (20 years ago) and he was 9lb 12oz!! She's only 5ft 2ins. Her husband is not tall, and the next two were tiny, so you never can tell.

I think all the drugs during labour cause the most problems ~ they slow you down (dangerously) and prolong the agony IMO. Lying down on beds strapped to badly functioning monitors isn't exactly relaxing and beneficial either.😳

Some midwives seem to have lost the knack, sadly, with increasing reliance on technology stripping them of their confidence. I suppose a balance is required ~ they can certainly save a lot of babies that previously would not have made it.

Perhaps the hospitals are afraid of insurance claims, with staff shortages, cutbacks, etc. I expect money will be involved somewhere too. Those C sections must be quite lucrative for someone. I'm really glad they're taking action re the babies immunity and gut flora ~ I had no idea they were doing that. x

[fortunata in reply to Cooper27]

I can’t imagine smearing poo on a baby’s lips would be a good idea. I’ve read about midwives taking a sterile muslin cloth, packing mums vagina with it and then wiping the baby all over with the cloth to give it the coating it would’ve naturally got if born vaginally.

[Mamapea1]

Thank you for posting this article helvella ~ very interesting, and not really off topic. Most of us have immunity problems after all ~ any information/knowledge is most welcome! x

[Marz]

i have read that the levels of VitD in the expectant mother are key to a healthy baby free of allergies and I seem to remember asthma being mentioned. Now where did I read that ? As are B12 levels btw

[Angel_of_the_North]

I was one of three kids in my entire primary school with asthma. I was breast fed and born in the normal way, but got whooping cough after being vaccinated for it. I always assumed that's why I had asthma (which was diagnosed as chronic bronchitis until I was in my early teens). Don't know why the other two kids wheezed. We had to do breathing exercises before assembly in the morning. It those days, it wasn't attributed to allergies - I was always told not to go out in the fog, but actually cold, dry weather was much worse.

[lady_eve]

It's purely my personal, instinctive feeling on this that the increase in both allergies and autoimmune illnesses has been brought about, at least in part, by the amount of pollution we are all absorbing on a daily basis - through ingestion, through inhalation, through our skin. Our biome did not evolve to cope with these things, largely derived from petro-chemicals.