![]() This lack of focus on allergies is largely still the case, despite the fact that the recent significant rise in food allergy rates has galvanised a lot of private research funding on the topic. Medical schools barely touched upon allergies at all, spending on average just two weeks on the subject. In fact, allergy research in general in the last century received far less funding and attention than other medical conditions that seemed more serious and deadly – like cancer or diabetes. Some children will still show signs of an allergy, but since the new guidelines came into effect in 2016, we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in food allergy to nuts.īut it wasn’t just food allergy research that was underfunded, leaving us more vulnerable to the wrong advice. We now know that it’s a great idea to introduce infants to trace amounts of allergens as early as possible. It turned out, based on newer scientific studies, that was exactly the wrong advice. In response to the rising rates of paediatric food allergy in the late 1980s and early 90s, paediatricians counselled parents of young children to avoid giving them allergenic foods – such as peanuts or soy – before the age of three. Perhaps the best example of how investing in research can lead to better outcomes is in the realm of food allergy. More research into the basic mechanisms behind allergy has also led to us dispelling unhelpful myths about allergies – sorry, probiotics aren’t helpful, and neither is eating local honey. The “ hygiene hypothesis” – or the idea that a little dirt can be good for us – is at least partially true the problem is that we still don’t know which microbes are helping us or how. We also understand that early childhood exposure to certain microorganisms – like the “good” bacteria found in farmhouse dust – can have a protective effect. We know that living close to major roads and bus depots as children can lead to a much higher risk of developing respiratory allergies and asthma. And we’ve been able to start using that knowledge to prevent allergies from developing in the first place – or at least to help us live with them when we can’t avoid them. ![]() There were only around 40 researchers even working on the topic.įortunately, over the past few decades, we’ve been slowly learning more about the biological mechanisms that drive our allergies. At conferences in the 1980s, there were hardly any presentations on food allergy at all, despite rising numbers of patients throughout the US and Europe. But the second, and perhaps more crucial, reason is this: until very recently, allergy was a backwater specialisation in medicine, largely ignored and drastically underfunded. ![]() First, the immune system itself is incredibly complicated and, until fairly recently, we simply didn’t have the technology to observe it in action. There are two reasons for this ignorance, in an era of fantastic scientific progress. But we know that they don’t – and we’re absolutely in the dark as to why. In theory, all of our immune cells should act exactly alike they have the same genetics, environment and exposures. We simply do not understand why one immune cell within our body will make the decision to respond negatively to a pollen grain – activating a full-on allergic reaction – while another immune cell in the same body does nothing. All of our immune systems are struggling to keep up with the changes we’ve been making over the past 200 years.Ī key problem when it comes to treating our allergies more effectively – or preventing them from developing in the first place – is our lack of understanding of exactly how our immune systems learn to tolerate all the things we come into contact with. Even our companion animals – all the dogs, cats and birds that live inside our homes – are developing allergies. In essence, our immune cells are being overwhelmed by modern life – more pollen in the air from both native and invasive plants all the chemicals that we use in products, from detergents to shampoos particulate matter from the fuels we burn. So recently, if you’ve felt like your body is becoming more and more irritated by the world around it, you’re probably correct. Industrialisation, urbanisation, changing diets, overuse of antibiotics and the climate crisis – with its warming temperatures, increased flooding and wildfires – are all exacerbating the difficulties our immune systems face as they are exposed to more and more things. Currently, approximately 30-40% of the global population has at least one allergic condition. Respiratory allergy, asthma, eczema and food allergy rates have all been ticking upward for at least the past 50 years. Allergies are both becoming more common and getting worse. If it seems as though everyone around you has been sneezing, coughing and wheezing more often this summer, you’re not imagining things. ![]()
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