Too Short for a Blog Post, Too Long for a Tweet 443

 

Here are a couple of excerpts from a book I recently read, "Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World," by Theresa MacPhail.

From a biological perspective, I can explain exactly what happened during my father’s last moments on earth. The underlying biology is, in many ways, the easiest part of the story to understand and to tell: My father’s immune system response was too effective for his own good. In Greek, anaphylaxis literally means “backward defense.” My dad’s immune system—built to protect him—was completely functional but overly sensitive, misrecognizing a naturally occurring, relatively innocuous substance as a direct threat. Once a heightened immune system reaction begins, it can be nearly impossible to stop. For the people who live with a severe allergy, the paradox of having such a strong, active immune system is that, in addition to protecting you from germs and parasites, it can kill you. And that’s exactly what happened to my dad.

We’re about to explore the major theories of allergy causation that focus on the effects of our “modern” lifestyles on our immune system function. The ways in which we produce, prepare, and eat food; the modern work culture with its continuous lack of sleep and high levels of stress; the antimicrobial agents, antiparasitics, and antibiotics that we use in human medicine and feed animals; gardening and our obsession with having a lush, grassy yard—all of these are suspects in the development and steady rise of allergies. While blame for allergy may have shifted from neurotic behaviors and anxious personalities in the nineteenth century to our diet and microbiome in the twenty-first, our culture and daily habits have come under steady scrutiny for the roles they may play in our increasing irritation for more than two hundred years. When all is said and done, we are right to blame ourselves, at least partially. Our entire modern lifestyle is likely at the root of the recent rise in allergies.