Food allergies - why do you think we're seeing this in our

[MJN]

society so much today? When I was growing up, I never heard about food allergies. Now, I hear about it everyday or so. I've just begun to wonder if some of us in my own family don't have them.

[Kathy in MD]

Growing up, to have an allergy, you had to break out in hives or sneeze a lot. Now we're aware that allergies can cause a lot more symptoms, such as behavioral problems.

 

Another part is probably that we spend more time inside and our homes are tighter (fewer air exchanges). This often traps us inside with our potential allergens more so the sensitive are more likely to develop symptoms. In addition, when I was a kid, our cats and dogs were more likely to be outside animals. Today, they often spend more time in the house than we do.

 

I've often heard that keeping too clean of a house will cause allergies. That's not a theory I could test ;)

[Jenny in Atl]

I also think we are bathed in chemicals, now more than ever. Much of our food is either genetically modified or grown in dirt that has been amended chemically. It's not just food allergies on the rise but all autoimmune illnesses as well. I feel this is a sign of a sick eco-system, when our own bodies start attacking ourselves.

[dangermom]

I too think it may have something to do with all the chemicals and hormones we've poured into our environment. Our air, water, and food has a lot of stuff in it that we don't fully understand.

 

Autoimmune problems generally seem to be on the rise, though we have also learned to diagnose them better. I think a few generations ago, a person would just have been considered "sickly"--or would have died sooner.

[Karen sn]

Less fresh air. More pollution.

Less real food. More processed white flour, refined of any nutrients, chemical substitute for food.

Less recess. More time sitting under a flourescent light with fake recirculated air and no physical movement of all.

 

We need more as organic as possible gardens, better water, exercise that's fun, etc......

I believe when the body is overloaded it can no longer function without detoxing and so allergies - mucous running out of the body - help get rid of the bad stuff.

[Emily in FL]

I do think allergies are diagnosed and treated differently now. As a previous poster mentioned, perhaps people who had undiagnosed allergies were simply considered sickly. That is what I had heard about my dh from his family. They talked about how sick he was when he was younger. They believed his problems came from allergies to pollen and dust mites. They took extreme measures IMO to keep him from dust mites especially.

 

It wasn't until my ds was diagnosed with multiple food allergies that I learned that my dh had also been diagnosed with FA as a child. His mother told me that the list was too overwhelming and that he ate so little that she didn't want to take away any foods from him. Also, they lived in a very rural area and did not have access to the variety of foods that a health food store might have.

 

Seeing how my ds reacts to certain foods, I am pretty sure that some of the sicknesses my dh had as a child could probably been prevented with a different diet. Thankfully, he survived and only has seasonal allergies now which seem to be under control.

[Michelle T]

with the widespread use of antibacterial soaps and such. Our immune systems aren't getting the healthy challenge required for good function, and so the immune system starts attacking the body.

 

I do also think various conditions are just more often diagnosed these days, whereas in the past, they wouldn't be treated.

Michelle T

[JennifersLost]

Look at how many of us in our thirties have peri-menopause!

 

I think it's sort of similar. For one thing we're more aware of it. We talk to each other and to more women now.

 

For another, we're constantly inundated by hormone-mimicking substances and I think a lot of us are actually hitting perimenopause earlier than our mothers did.

 

I also think our kids are eating foods that maybe wouldn't have been as prevalent before, which are upping their allergies. I have come to believe that my super-food-allergy child's problems were all caused by the peanut butter and milk he ate as a youngster.

 

I ate peanut butter and milk, too, and I've had a whole slew of digestive problems in my life, too. They showed up differently than his, but I think there's a link there, somewhere.