Kiss of death

[Dinner]

I guess in older times people who were this allergic simply died as a child and no one knew why. That's why you never heard of them before modern medicine.

[Last Conformist]

That may be part of it, but "overclean" modern living conditions are heavily implicated. In the abscence of all the little harmless infections that children in dirtier mileus undergo, the immune system may become hyperactive.

[DaShi]

Peanut allergies are a rare side effect from polio vaccines. Actually, it not the vaccine itself that causes the allergy, but the small government listening device delivered with it.

[duke o' york]

Ha! As if governments listen to us.

[Sava]

that sucks

oh well

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Timexwatch
I always wonder where these kids were when my parents were kids. Is this peanut thing a recent phenomenon or has it always been there?

Hell, where were they when I was a kid?

Like all those ADHD kids on Ritalin... where the hell did they come from?

[Elok]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
God, I can't imagine how he's feeling now

Sympathizing with Rogue from "X-Men." That would be my guess, anyway.

I'm allergic to peanuts myself, but I'm not nearly as sensitive; I could eat several peanuts and survive with nothing worse than a swollen throat. Plus women don't kiss me. So I'm doubly safe.

[Kuciwalker]

Sympathizing with Rogue from "X-Men." That would be my guess, anyway.

Dammit, that's actually exactly what I thought of when I saw the story.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
That may be part of it, but "overclean" modern living conditions are heavily implicated. In the abscence of all the little harmless infections that children in dirtier mileus undergo, the immune system may become hyperactive.

I was a filthy little thing always getting in the mud, never washing my hands (unless mom was looking), went to public schools so every germ in the western hemisphere got passed around, plus I'd go hiking all the time (first with my friend and his dad but later by myself or with friends) or swim in one of the local lakes.

Can't say I have an allegies.

[Richelieu]

I was a filthy little thing always getting in the mud, never washing my hands (unless mom was looking), went to public schools so every germ in the western hemisphere got passed around, plus I'd go hiking all the time .

I do have allergies.

[Dis]

Originally posted by Richelieu
I was a filthy little thing always getting in the mud, never washing my hands (unless mom was looking), went to public schools so every germ in the western hemisphere got passed around, plus I'd go hiking all the time .

I do have allergies.

I never ever washed my hands as a kid. My mother never enforced me either (I had bad parents ). You don't get any filthier than me as a kid.

But I don't have allergies. Though I live in a desert, that may have something to do with it. The smog in my city wasn't bad in the 70's. It didn't get bad until the 80's.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

I'm allergic to peanut butter myself so ihave no problems seing how this happened. I've had reactions just smelling the thing.

Me too. Its a very common allergy, hence the warnings on every peice of food saying "this product may contain traces of nuts".

[Az]

yep.

Btw, are allergies mostly genetic? is this one genetic? This is something I am completely ignorant about.

[snoopy369]

Allergies are very, very complex. Certainly some are genetic, though I don't know peanut allergies specifically. Many are not directly genetic though - although it's possible if not somewhat likely that the proclivity to be allergic is.

Allergies are basically the immune system incorrectly targetting something as 'bad' that should not be. It's either something normally harmless (like pollen, or Ara h2, the major allergen contained in peanuts) that your immune system has an excessively large reaction to, or it's part of your body that is incorrectly targetted ("autoimmune disease" is the extreme version of this, such as Lupus, MS, rheumatoid arthritis).

In fatal allergies, such as peanut (that's the only major fatal food allergy, thank god), or bee sting, the allergy causes anaphylactic shock, which often includes hypotension, which is a sudden drop in blood pressure caused by the massive immune reaction. Epinephrin (Adrenaline) can counter this reaction, although it's not something to be taken lightly - it causes serious side-effects of its own.

One interesting fact: Most anaphylactic reactions, such as bee and peanut allergies, cannot occur on the first exposure to the potential allergen. That's because they are IgE (Immunoglobulin E) mediated; the first exposure activates the IgE on certain immune cells (mast cells, basophils), and only a second exposure will cause the release of the chemical mediators that cause the shock. (However, often people don't know they were exposed to peanuts, or even a bee sting, because they might have been exposed to a tiny amount, such as peanut in a non-peanut-containing food, or a bee sting during pregnancy.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Az
yep.

Btw, are allergies mostly genetic? is this one genetic? This is something I am completely ignorant about.

Apparently it's considered likely that peanut allergies are genetic, based on a twin study sponsored by the NIH.

(Note that twin studies are NOT blind studies (at least not this sort), but are observational, and thus could easily be affected by human error or observer's bias. A single twin study is not nearly adequate evidence to be certain.)

The guess, and it's a pretty likely one, is the HLA-II genes, which I'm a bit fuzzy on the specifics of, but iirc they affect the MHC-2 (major histocompatibility complex), which is the antigen-presenting portion of cells. That makes a lot of sense, because if the MHC is (genetically) vulnerable for allergens to be presented and/or if the immune cells (particularly T-4 and TH-2) are genetically likely to identify the allergens, then the person is more likely to be personally allergic.