Springtime Sniffles
On Tuesday I had a very bad allergy attack. The moment I woke up, I started sneezing at regular intervals, interrupted by nose-blowing and eye rubbing. I sneezed so frequently that two people in my biology class got into a competition over how quickly they could say ‘bless you’ after I sneezed. After class, as I was complaining to one of my friends about allergies, they nodded sympathetically and added that they, too, suffered from springtime sniffles. In fact, about thirty percent of adults and forty percent of children have allergies.
It wasn’t always like this. Since the 1950s, the number of people who suffer from allergies has slowly but steadily increased globally. Though at first only hay fever increased, there has since been a rise in food allergies, which is a cause for serious concern. If we can eradicate life-threatening illnesses, why can’t we control allergies?
When you take a dose of antibiotics, the drug not only kills off the bad bacteria, but the good bacteria too.
We might have done too good a job of eradicating pathogens. Our bodies are coated inside and out with bacteria and other microorganisms which feed on dead skin cells and mucus. Gross? Maybe, but without these microbes, we wouldn’t be able to digest certain foods. Some bacteria also keep out toxins which can enter through the linings of tissues in your eyes, nose, and intestines. Without bacteria to stop them, toxins can slip through the cells and float freely through your bloodstream. T cells, the cells that attack pathogens, can become highly sensitive and attack the mostly harmless toxins.
When you take a dose of antibiotics, the drug not only kills off the bad bacteria, but the good bacteria too. If you install a filter on your air conditioner, pollen and debris that originally would have drifted through the air are no longer present. Because of a lack of diverse microbes in our bodies and under-exposure to dust-filled air, our immune systems have essentially turned on us and are attacking our bodies for very minor invasions.
In developed countries, where the standard of hygiene is higher, the number of people with allergies far outpaces the number of those in developing countries. Allergies are also on the rise in places with increasing standards of cleanliness and the ability to maintain it. By cutting down on the number of pathogens and dirt in our environments, we are making ourselves sick in an entirely new way.
Does this mean that you should go and roll around in dirt to avoid allergies? Please don’t. If you already have an allergy, it probably won’t go away anytime soon. However, you can boost your immune system and lessen attacks by eating a variety of foods, getting good sleep, and hydrating. At Exeter, this may be hard, but these activities have benefits elsewhere, so you would be helping your body in other places besides your immune system.
I’m going to go hunt for a box of tissues and a Claritin.