A recent article on allergies and asthma rates should be causing concern to all, particularly if you are raising children.Some reports suggest that up 70% of the current generation could suffer allergies of some type. It is important to clarify that I am talking about allergies, and not just food intolerance’s. An allergy is where the body actually reacts against a substance causing secondary problems. Some of these problems include, asthma, anaphylactic shock and skin disorders such as hives.
There are many theories in the medical (and not so medical) world regarding the cause of this increase in allergic reactions. Some of these include breast feeding (see article here), the ‘hygiene hypothesis’, (see my article here), pollution and gene technology. I have even seen stories that blame space flight and imported pathogens from either the space craft or space junk entering our atmosphere.
| The reality is that there are probably a combination of causes. The breast feeding article is interesting and I can see the logic. If a mother has allergy problems then there has to be the possibility of passing those problems on to her children. The question is, is it passed on in the uterus prior to birth, or through breast milk. Breast milk has been recognized for hundreds of years as being the primary source of antibodies that help baby through life. Is it becoming a catch 22 situation – the baby needs breast milk to receive antibodies – at the same time the baby is receiving allergy pathogens? |
The second area that I think is more likely to cause problems is the hygiene hypotheses which basically says that the more we sterilize our environment, the more ‘good’ bacteria we are killing. If you consider what we are doing in today’s world; antibiotics (kill good and bad bacteria), sterilize everything in the house (kill good and bad bacteria), prevent our children from having contact with anyone who is sick (not building natural resistance) and immunizing our kids (artificial immunity); you can see that our little ones are not getting the opportunity to develop strong natural immune systems. I cover this topic in full here – please feel free to read and comment.
The third area that does need addressing of course is pollution. Probably the one area that can be statically measured is the increase in air/water/ground pollutants and the increase in allergies, particularly asthma. In developing countries that do not have these pollutants, they have a much lower incidence of allergy. (This statistic is also true for the hygiene hypotheses). It is also interesting to note that in developing countries where pollutants are increasing, so too are the incidence of allergic reactions – unfortunately often leading to death as they don’t have the medical facilities to match.
In conclusion, we really do need to be concerned with this problem. I have not flooded the article with boring statistics, I don’t believe I need to. We all probably live with individuals who suffer allergies. Perhaps you suffer as well? And the numbers are growing. Will mankind kill itself off because it becomes allergic to its own environment? I am sure we wont be the first species to become allergic to our own environment – and perish!
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