10 ms·

> Suddenly the misery of allergies took on a new look. Allergies weren’t the body going haywire; they were the body’s strategy for getting rid of the allergens.

> Suddenly the misery of allergies took on a new look. Allergies weren’t the body going haywire; they were the body’s strategy for getting rid of the allergens. Well of course. I'm just a layman when it comes to allergies, but I thought it was well understood that allergies were the body's inflammatory reaction to an allergen, i.e., an attempt to eliminate (or otherwise neutralize) the allergen. The problem is that, according to the conventional wisdom, the body's reaction to allergen is mistaken. Presumably the body is attempting to target and eliminate something that is actually harmful, but it winds up responding to something harmless, or by triggering a response so severe that it does more harm than good. That's, broadly speaking, the difference between an allergen and a pathogen/poison. A poison/pathogen will actually harm you if it is not eliminated. An allergen will not (or, at least, not in proportion to the severity of the reaction. But I don't see why the observation above has anything to say about the real question, which is why does the body sometimes mistakes one for the other, and freaks out in the presence of harmless substances?

a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
When plants are stressed by bruising from machines, poor storage after harvest, poor soil, or various pesticide/fungicide exposures, they produce defensive toxins, for examples chitinase and solanine. These various chemicals trigger reactions when humans consume the plants. There's a credible argument that the increased "intensity" of modern agriculture has resulted in stressed plants dominating the modern food supply. This is very easy to see if you buy fresh potatoes. The ones that have been cut up a bit by the harvester often smell weird, taste bad, and can even be a bit green with solanine production. You'll find it's typically much harder to get good potatoes in March and April as the ones on sale have been in cold storage a long time and are stressed. I think peanuts as a crop have suffered from very intensive industrialization more than other crops. Also, I have read that the storage facilities have problems with mold growth. Many peanut butters test positive for mold toxins. With many of these food allergies where people wonder why it seems to be a modern phenomenon can probably be linked to the degradation of the industrialized food supply. Furthermore, the ongoing stress of slightly toxin loaded food primes the immune system to over-reactivatity. Things like pollen allergies are aggravated.
- nooneelse 12y ago
  Under this proposal, would the prediction be that someone who has a "peanut butter allergy" could eat peanut butter made under special conditions (cleanroomesque greenhouse environment, lots of TLC to the plants, and with screening to ensure that no molds were impacting the final product) without having the reaction?
deeviant 12y ago
It's not an inflammatory response, it's an immune response. The inflammation is simply a side effect of the immune system swinging into action.
chaosfactor 12y ago
I have theorized that allergies, such as cat allergies, may, in some cases, be your body's way of warning you that there are Big Cats in the vicinity and you should GTFO.
- saraid216 12y ago
  Loudly sneezing, blurring your vision, and ruining your sense of smell are really not conducive to surviving an encounter with a big cat. I mean, you might piss it off if you sneeze on it, I guess. Yay?
  - chaosfactor 12y ago
    Costs vs benefits.
  - jccooper 12y ago
    It's an environmental allergy, not an emergency one. If you notice you feel like crap in a certain place (because cats like to lurk there), and subsequently avoid it, that's a win. Not that I necessarily believe that's a good explanation for allergies, but it's plausible enough to think about.
- possibilistic 12y ago
  This is not how Type I hypersensitivity works. Epitope recognition is powered by a biological RNG (somatic hypermutation) and evolves at runtime via the process of somatic / V(D)J chain recombination. Your body learns to be allergic, perhaps due to a bad ashy vent (you got sick that one spring), under-stimulation (play outside!), or just plain bad luck. Unfortunately for all of us, the immune system has no concept of the innocuous nature of harmless antigens. It will continue to pick up bad habits until the day we die. But thankfully it also keeps the trillions of cells, leaky programming, our own broken and errant self, and other uninvited guests that would just as soon eat us at bay (bacteria, viruses, cancer, fungi, nematodes, ...).
  - chaosfactor 12y ago
    Did you just say that allergies are never genetic?

a8da6b0c91d 12y ago

When plants are stressed by bruising from machines, poor storage after harvest, poor soil, or various pesticide/fungicide exposures, they produce defensive toxins, for examples chitinase and solanine. These various chemicals trigger reactions when humans consume the plants. There's a credible argument that the increased "intensity" of modern agriculture has resulted in stressed plants dominating the modern food supply. This is very easy to see if you buy fresh potatoes. The ones that have been cut up a bit by the harvester often smell weird, taste bad, and can even be a bit green with solanine production. You'll find it's typically much harder to get good potatoes in March and April as the ones on sale have been in cold storage a long time and are stressed. I think peanuts as a crop have suffered from very intensive industrialization more than other crops. Also, I have read that the storage facilities have problems with mold growth. Many peanut butters test positive for mold toxins. With many of these food allergies where people wonder why it seems to be a modern phenomenon can probably be linked to the degradation of the industrialized food supply. Furthermore, the ongoing stress of slightly toxin loaded food primes the immune system to over-reactivatity. Things like pollen allergies are aggravated.

nooneelse 12y ago
Under this proposal, would the prediction be that someone who has a "peanut butter allergy" could eat peanut butter made under special conditions (cleanroomesque greenhouse environment, lots of TLC to the plants, and with screening to ensure that no molds were impacting the final product) without having the reaction?

deeviant 12y ago

It's not an inflammatory response, it's an immune response. The inflammation is simply a side effect of the immune system swinging into action.

chaosfactor 12y ago

I have theorized that allergies, such as cat allergies, may, in some cases, be your body's way of warning you that there are Big Cats in the vicinity and you should GTFO.

saraid216 12y ago
Loudly sneezing, blurring your vision, and ruining your sense of smell are really not conducive to surviving an encounter with a big cat. I mean, you might piss it off if you sneeze on it, I guess. Yay?
- chaosfactor 12y ago
  Costs vs benefits.
- jccooper 12y ago
  It's an environmental allergy, not an emergency one. If you notice you feel like crap in a certain place (because cats like to lurk there), and subsequently avoid it, that's a win. Not that I necessarily believe that's a good explanation for allergies, but it's plausible enough to think about.
possibilistic 12y ago
This is not how Type I hypersensitivity works. Epitope recognition is powered by a biological RNG (somatic hypermutation) and evolves at runtime via the process of somatic / V(D)J chain recombination. Your body learns to be allergic, perhaps due to a bad ashy vent (you got sick that one spring), under-stimulation (play outside!), or just plain bad luck. Unfortunately for all of us, the immune system has no concept of the innocuous nature of harmless antigens. It will continue to pick up bad habits until the day we die. But thankfully it also keeps the trillions of cells, leaky programming, our own broken and errant self, and other uninvited guests that would just as soon eat us at bay (bacteria, viruses, cancer, fungi, nematodes, ...).
- chaosfactor 12y ago
  Did you just say that allergies are never genetic?