Food allergies are in the news. A school banned homemade goodies from a school fund-raiser; a parent was reprimanded for sending their child to school with peanut butter cookies. Someone who was in school in the 50s or 60s might comment, “When I was in school, I never heard of anyone being allergic to peanuts. Why are so many kids allergic now?”
The Genetic Factor
Why indeed? Scientist believe that genetics are a major contributing factor to allergies, but there does not appear to be a single allergy gene. Instead, there seem to be many allergy genes. Dr. Dennis Ownby, the head of allergy and immunology at the Medical College of Georgia, believes that something has changed, increasing the percentage of people with allergies.
He believes that in developed countries, the genetic ability to become allergic has increased during the past three decades. However, Dr. Cyr, a researcher with the Allergy, Genes and Environment Network, does not believe that genes alone account for the rise in allergies, commenting that the gene pool does not change in only a few decades. Dr. Cyr believes that the environment is also causing the dramatic rise in allergies.
The Increase in People with Allergies and Asthma
Currently, about 4% of Americans and Canadians are allergic to at least one food. The number of children with a peanut allergy has doubled. The World Allergy Organization estimates that worldwide, the number of asthmatics increased by 50% every 10 years since the 1970s.
Can Cleanliness Make You Allergic?
In 1989, German researchers were offered a unique opportunity to study asthma in two very similar gene pools, the people in modern, hygienic Munich compared to those in formerly Communist Leipzig, with many dirty, billowing smokestacks. To their surprise, they found considerably more asthma in super-clean Munich than in polluted Leipzig. They also found that in both cities, children from large families were the least likely to have allergies or asthma. They theorized that children with siblings were exposed to the most germs and built up resistance.
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