So people who grow up in a household with a dog also tend to have a slightly lower rate of allergies than people who grow up in a household without pets. And I will say that if you grow up with a dog in particular, dogs seem to be protective.
It could be the allergens in the air mixed with certain types of bacteria that would be in a barn. On studies that show early exposure help with tolerance There was something about being the youngest that was protective.Īnd it's probably the same theory that you're just getting exposed to more germs on a day-to-day basis, and that, at a young age, that's actually helpful because it helps to train your immune system so it's not going to be oversensitive when the kid gets a little bit older. And so they would bring home all of these bacteria and viruses and the littlest ones would be exposed to a whole bevy of things that maybe the eldest didn't have the same exposure to. And so he posited that that was probably because they had older siblings who got sick a lot. What he found was that in families that had multiple children, the youngest children had much lower rates of allergic disease. So he kind of looked at all the factors involved in developing an allergy. This British researcher did a meta-data study.
in families that had multiple children, the youngest children had much lower rates of allergic disease. On the hypothesis that hygiene and allergies are connected So that's basically going on in your body all the time. They alert all of the other immune cells that something's up, you got to come and take care of this guy. And so when they see it or something similar to it, they send out the signal. So at the nightclub entrance, you've got a bouncer ready to spot oak pollen, but you've got 50 bouncers out the door all looking for specific things. produce cells called IgE or little proteins, Y-shaped proteins, and those are like the bouncers. We gotta get it out."Īnd so these B-cells. And he shows a picture of this oak pollen and says, "Hey, I really don't like this guy. Think of them as nightclub managers in your body, on the street that the T-cell is patrolling. It's gotta go." It gives that information to a class of cells called B-cells. So if a T-cell comes into contact with an oak pollen, say, and it says, "I don't like the looks of this. T-cells are the police officers of our body, they're constantly circulating and finding things in our body that shouldn't be there. On how, when it comes to allergens, the immune system acts like bouncers at a nightclub MacPhail also posits a link between allergies and a rise in exposure to environmental toxins, which could reduce the skin's ability to ward off potential allergens.Īllergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World, by Theresa MacPhail Other explanations for the increase in allergic reactions include the shift in our diets over the years toward more processed foods and less fiber, which affects our microbiomes. "We have seen that people who send their children to daycare centers, there's something about being in a daycare center that is also protective." They're not around enough germs," she says. "You've probably heard that we don't let kids eat enough dirt. In her new book, Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World, she explores some of the theories behind the rise in allergies - including the theory that excessive emphasis on hygiene (and perhaps even showering) can contribute to the development of sensitivities. MacPhail is an associate professor of science and technology studies at Stevens Institute of Technology. Estimates are that 30 to 40% of the world's population now have some form of allergy, and medical anthropologist Theresa MacPhail says allergic reactions - including everything from hay fever to eczema and asthma - are growing in the U.S. If it seems like your seasonal allergies are getting worse over time, you're probably not wrong.
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