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From: heather@blia.BLI.COM (Heather Mackinnon)
Newsgroups: sci.med,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Allergies
Message-ID: <4568@blia.BLI.COM>
Date: 28 Apr 88 04:21:52 GMT
References: <1160@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>
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Organization: Britton Lee, Los Gatos, CA
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In article <1160@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>, vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn) writes:
> 
> As spring settles in, and as I try to live with our new cat, I'm struck
> by horrible thoughts about allergies, like: is it true that allergies
> are essentially a flawed immune responses? are allergies increasing in
> this population? are allergies as common in foreign coutries? is it
> possible to have evidence about the prevalence of allergies going back
> even twenty years, let alone twenty generations?

Allergies are the effect of an overzealous immune system.  Allergic
reactions are identical to the immune response against flatworms.  Worm
infestations still are the number one cause of death worldwide.  It is
possible that allergies were originally adaptive in preventing worm
infestations.  It's interesting that worm infestations are not very
common in the U.S.  This is not because we have better sanitation or
better medical care but simply because there are comparatively few
virulent worm parasites in North America.

It is well known that human infants who are fed ANYTHING but mother's
milk for the first six months of life are much more prone to
allergies.  Also, infants under 2 years of age who are fed cow's milk
or eggs are more likely to develop allergies than other infants.  The
La Leche League book "The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding" has summaries
of many studies which have been done on infant formula and infant
health and also information on the immunological benefits of breastmilk
for the human infant.  It has been common practice during the past 50
years to feed infants infant formulas, to introduce solids at 6 weeks
of age and to feed infants large quantities of cow's milk and eggs,
often in the form of infant formulas.

> I have heard it suggested that in the modern age our immune systems are
> deteriorating in general, and that this is not apparent because we've
> only known about immune systems for a few decades.  Any thoughts?

A hundred years ago, vaccines were nonexistent, antibiotics had not been
discovered and sanitary practice was atrocious.  People, particularly
children, died like flies of infections.  People lived in dread of
diptheria, smallpox, scarlet fever, typhoid, cholera, pneumonia,
tuberculosis and many other diseases that we have essentially
eradicated.  Our immune systems were designed to deal with the very 
real threats we have evolved with.

Many of the immune disorders that humans suffer from are the result of
overactive immune systems rather than deteriorating immune systems.

While we're on the subject, I don't believe that AIDS is a new disease.
A person with AIDS in the last century would have died of pneumonia
or some other "wasting sickness".  End of story from the nineteenth
century point of view.

I've tried to keep this short.  I'm very skeptical of claims that
human health or human immunity is on the downgrade.  There are
definitely areas in which human health could improve.  By all
means, we should work to improve them.  But let's steer clear of
gross generalizations that pit modern humans against people who
have long been dead and can't defend themselves.

References dug up upon request,

Heather Mackinnon