What is an allergy? How do we get them? When allergies were first discovered by Clemson von Pirquet, they weren’t very common, but the amount of people that have allergies now are growing rapidly every year. There are two main hypothesis that people have proposed for why this is happening. One is that humans now are so clean that children’s environments are germ free and their immune systems don’t fully develop and become strong. The second is that chemicals from truck exhaust, rubber, pesticides or cleaning compounds are making our immune system go haywire.
The idea of an "allergy" was introduced in 1906 by the Austrian pediatrician Clemens von Pirquet. He came to this discovery after he said that some of his patients were reacting in abnormal ways to innocuous entities such as pollen, certain foods, or dust. He named this reaction in a person’s immune system an allergy.
Today, one out of every 13 kids in the US has an allergy and I happen to be one of them. Sometimes being allergic to the weirdest thing, sesame, can be embarrassing when explaining to others. “It’s a life threatening allergy”, I find myself saying. But I have had many allergic reactions and I’m still alive, so maybe its not that bad. Having allergies have taught me how to take care of myself and become independent. One summer, two years ago, I decided I would take a risk and try to out grow my allergy. Everyday I would have a bite of an sesame cracker and everyday I would take a little bit bigger piece. My immune system was growing stronger and stronger, but eventually, I stopped. I didn’t really care for the taste of the cracker and I had assumed that my immune system wouldn’t get worse. I was wrong, I hadn’t fully gotten rid of the allergy and it came back after a while.
Many scientist are doing experiments on allergies and how to help children outgrow them. I recently read an article in the Oregonian about how scientist are giving children with peanut allergies small amounts of peanut protein powder everyday and eventually their reactions are going away. Hopefully, someday this form of testing will be very common and less people will have allergies.
Sources:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17136331
Hi Layton,
ReplyDeleteI like how you include information about how allergies happen and how they could be cured. I hope that my cat and dog allergies can be cured! I use to have a neighbor who told me he used to be extremely allergic to dogs, but he got one and had to live with it. He spent a while with his eyes so swollen that he couldn't see, but he got over it and had a really funny dog. Which hypothesis about reasons for allergies do you think is more accurate, from your experiences?
thanks,
Haley
I have a dog and cat allergy too, it really can be a pain sometimes. In the case that you are explaining about you neighbor, it is proving the point that gradual expose can cure allergies. There hasn’t been much research done with the other reason, but I personally believe that the people that have food or animal allergies should try the gradual expose tests because they truly do help. Though the first idea has been proven to work, the second theory has not been disproven or proven yet. Some people have such severe allergies that even if they tried a very small amount of what they couldn’t eat, it could possibly kill them. From my experiences, I would say that gradual exposure seems like the most accurate theory because it has been proven to work.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the question,
-Layton
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ReplyDeleteHey Lay-Lay
ReplyDeleteI like how you wrote about how allergies were discovered. I found it weird how somebody had to discover them. I kinda just thought everybody just knew about some things, like allergies. I like how you incorporated you life threatening sesame allergy into the post. I didn't know that you tried to make your sesame allergy disappear and I think that is the favorite part of the post.You said that you stopped trying to get rid of it, did you ever think of trying to get rid of it again? It is a great post that is filled with great facts and great stories and overall is very well written.
-AllyP50
Hi A.P.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you enjoyed my blog!
To tell the truth, the reason why I haven't tried to get rid of my allergy again is because I'm scared. In the past year I have had over 2 allergic reactions and I get a little freaked out.
My throat gets really tight and I get rashes all over my arms. I wish I was brave enough to try it again, studies have shown that it really works.
Thank you for the comment,
-Layton
Layton, I think this is a really cool topic, and I love how you included both historical facts, and info from your own life. Was it scary the first time you tried to eat a sesame cracker? Super cool post. ~Hannah
ReplyDeleteHey Layton,
ReplyDeleteNice job! I like how you wrote about who discovered allergies and how they were discovered. How long have you known that your allergic to sesame?
-Lois
Hi Layton,
ReplyDeleteI really like this topic, even though I don't really have any allergies. I also relished the fact that you but how you can cure the allergies as well. Do you think we will have increased allergies with the growth of technology, because our bodies won't have to adjust as well?
Much love
Alex
Hey Layton,
ReplyDeleteWow. It seems so scary to have an allergy. If you do accidentally eat something you weren't supposed to, do you carry anything with you to help you? I've seen people with something that looks like gigantic shots just in case they eat something. Have you ever accidentally eaten anything that you weren't supposed to?
~Alexander Yu
Hey Layton,
ReplyDeleteI thought that it was really smart of you to bring the statistic of 1 in every 14 kids in the U.S. has an allergy. It really brought the whole piece together. I thought that it was going to be a piece about the history of allergies, but you completely turned it around and turned it into a personal story. Great Post!
-Nate
Hello Layton,
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very cool topic, and I'm glad you shared. I liked how you included facts from your own life and from history. I was surprised when you brought the statistic 1 in 14 kids have an allergy, because I thought there were way more kids with allergies. Thank you for sharing this!
Thanks!
~Sydney
Hey Layton,
ReplyDeleteI like your post an your experiences. THe part about eating a little bit of something every day and getting increasingly larger was really interesting. Also the person who "invented" allergies was interesting. What allergies do you have? Great Post
-Wyatt
Hi Layton,
ReplyDeleteI really liked your post! I really liked how you put your own experiences. What was your first allergy that you had ever had? Have you ever grown out of any of your allergies?
Good job,
Grace
Hey Layton,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post! It was a great topic, how did you come up with it? I thought that your first few sentences were really great, and really brought the reader in to read more. I like how in the end your wrote about what scientists are doing about the allergies now. I thought it was a really great conclusion. Great job!
-Gemma