What about the rise of people who were not allergic and exposed all their lives. Then suddenly get allergies in adulthood?
Have several in the office and years ago I never heard of such a thing
I developed an allergy to penicillins in my twenties. The doctor told me you can become allergic to any thing at any time. My husband stepped in a yellow jacket nest when he was a toddler and ended up in the hospital, he is now allergic to stings, but swears he is over it. Heavy sigh. He has his own construction business so is often alone on a job site. I try not to think about it.
Two of our kids have allergies. The oldest is a puzzle as his was a full term pregnancy and no major illnesses. He has environmental allergies (many! Trees, grasses, molds, animals) which induce asthma. The only thing I can think of is that I was an anxious new mom and did everything “right” including introducing grains at four months old. I read up on nutrition and fed my other babies quite differently. Our fifth son was a preemie (not traumatic, it was a planned c-section due to a complete previa) and despite me taking high quality probiotics to prepare, he has many food allergies. Thankfully, they cause eczema not an anaphylactic reaction. Though at two a reaction to a skin virus (easy to pick up with open skin) put him in the hospital for a few days. Functional medicine doctor said he was a textbook example of leaky gut caused by the antibiotics he got at birth. They saved his life but cause a leaky gut, so many foods trigger an allergic response.
All of that has brought me to this conclusion: gut health is extremely important. 100 years ago we didn’t see so many people with allergies, autism and asthma, but my son and I would have died in childbirth-he wouldn’t have lived to develop allergies. Friends of ours had their first daughter 8 weeks early-she is autistic, 100 years ago she most likely would have died rather than grow to show symptoms of autism. I’m a fan of antibiotics as they save babies’ lives, but they do impair gut health and it’s hard to heal. I know it’s not the only cause of allergies, asthma and autism but I think it plays a huge role.
What about the rise of people who were not allergic and exposed all their lives. Then suddenly get allergies in adulthood?
Then I took one macadamia nut out of a package a family member was eating from for days with no problems, and just having it in my mouth, all those symptoms came right back, and I hadn’t even swallowed any. I spit it out. Told a GI doc later and she gave me a script for epi—pen (which I’ve never filled but I guess I should) and told me that my allergy was the kind that leads to anaphalytic shock.
What does that come from? Different gut biome?
This story means I can’t kiss any Hawaiians, I guess. :(