[GraceCoolidge]

I am puzzled by where these severe food allergies came from. Growing up, I never heard about or knew anyone who had these types of allergies. Were illness and death from these allergies misdiagnosed? Is this a new phenomenon? I have to admit that it really seems weird to me that all of a sudden, you have a lot of kids with deathly allergies to peanuts. And while I do sympathize with the children who have these allergies, I am not sure where it stops... and people with the more, shall we say, "creative" ailments (multiple chemical sensitivity, etc.) make it harder for kids with bona fide health issues. I just can't figure out the origin for what I perceive as a sudden surge in peanut allergies.

[PJammers]

It's because people who had severe food or other allergies/medical problems years ago died. It's called natural selection.

We now have ways of diagnosing and treating these problems thus keeping these folks alive, which unfortunately weakens the gene pool.

Don't get me wrong. I don't advocate letting people die. It's just a consequence of having improved medical care.

v/r

[ImaGraftedBranch]

It's all the chemicals we ingest. Has to be.

[JTHomes]

It seems plausible the increase in infant vaccination (32 recommended in the first year of life) can cause immune malfunctions in some genetically vulnerable people. The overload on the immature immune system, combined with the toxic overload from mercury, aluminum and other toxins in vaccines causes a hyper-immune response. This manifests in different ways. One is to exaggerate the response to allergens. What should be a normal allergic response such as a runny nose or headache becomes life threatening from the overreaction.

[Former Proud Canadian]

There is a theory that the mother ingests peanuts during a certain period of pregnancy, thereby creating the allergy in the fetus.

[rwfromkansas]

I have minor allergies to all sorts of things (mostly medicines....probably due to how many times I had to use antibiotics when little so now I break out in minor hives to some of them...it also may be the die used in the pills). I think I may have one minor food allergy, though I am not sure to what, but until it becomes serious, I am not going to stop eating food I like. I am worried it is dairy, so that is why I try to remain in the dark about it.

I think chemicals etc. have a lot to do with allergies, as well as overexposure to stuff.

That is why my dad, who did beekeeping as a hobby when real young, is deadly allergic to bees now, whereas when he first started, they did not bother him at all.