Ran across this on bluesky. Prevalence of allergies is a fairly recent phenomenon, following the pathogen load reduction of improved hygiene and modern medicine. It’s a discussion of how to mitigate the situation.

“Evidence suggests a combination of strategies, including natural childbirth, breast feeding, increased social exposure through sport, other outdoor activities, less time spent indoors, diet and appropriate antibiotic use, may help restore the microbiome and perhaps reduce risks of allergic disease. Preventive efforts must focus on early life. The term ‘hygiene hypothesis’ must be abandoned.”

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4966430/

Good paper. Most is conjecture (based on evidence) but is more certainly more coherent than the hygiene hypothesis. I also like the fact that they are not overfocusing on the gut biota. While relevant, IMO it dominates the view too much, because there are just so many folks working on it and not because other factors where shown to be less important. For example, I think that the environment/immune interaction at the lung level is still understudied, mostly because it is very inaccessible compared to just looking at stool.

One I will read. Tks

1 hour ago, swansont said:

Ran across this on bluesky. Prevalence of allergies is a fairly recent phenomenon, following the pathogen load reduction of improved hygiene and modern medicine. It’s a discussion of how to mitigate the situation.

“Evidence suggests a combination of strategies, including natural childbirth, breast feeding, increased social exposure through sport, other outdoor activities, less time spent indoors, diet and appropriate antibiotic use, may help restore the microbiome and perhaps reduce risks of allergic disease. Preventive efforts must focus on early life. The term ‘hygiene hypothesis’ must be abandoned.”

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4966430/

This seems to favour the Old Friends hypothesis and to distinguish this clearly from the Hygiene Hypothesis. In other words, early exposure of infants to a wide variety of non-pathogenic micro organisms is beneficial, but should on no account be confused with the popular notion in some quarters that catching childhood diseases is somehow good, which it emphatically isn’t.

It seems to start with natural childbirth (contact with vaginal and faecal micro organisms from the mother), continue with breast feeding and then with playing outside on the ground, with pets or farm animals and so on.

I also noted in passing that roasted peanuts are more allergenic than raw ones. (I’ve always rather hated roasted peanuts, as it happens, but love fresh ones. As a kid I used to eat the raw peanuts my grandmother had to feed the birds in the garden.)

I'd say let's not fix the alpha-gal, though. Too much red meat eating going on in the world. Any assist from ticks appreciated!

Seriously, yes, I think hygiene hypothesis could be modified. I wouldn't entirely discard the hygiene aspect where some douse household surfaces with antibacterials and generally try to create a clean-room ambience. I also am unsure that putting HEPA filters on HVAC systems is good. As a lifelong benefactor of the vag/boob/poo/dander/turf/no antibiotics regimen (kids! ask me for my pro tips on faking washed hands!), I am very nearly a Filth Evangelist. We did go kind of overboard on the animal contact, though. These are the species I had live contact with ages 1-10: cats, dogs, horses, cattle, goats, chickens, pigs, rabbits, possums (don't ask), toads, lizards, hamsters, rats, parrots, and elephants (riding an elephant is surprisingly comfortable), to name some of them. If someone doesn't have relatives who farm or employed by a zoo, "petting zoos" are also a possible option for conditioning an immune system.

3 hours ago, CharonY said:

Good paper. Most is conjecture (based on evidence) but is more certainly more coherent than the hygiene hypothesis. I also like the fact that they are not overfocusing on the gut biota. While relevant, IMO it dominates the view too much, because there are just so many folks working on it and not because other factors where shown to be less important. For example, I think that the environment/immune interaction at the lung level is still understudied, mostly because it is very inaccessible compared to just looking at stool.

Yeah, there is a lot of focus on gut biota. Aren't some researchers suggesting early infant exposure to peanuts? My hay fever started late in life. Got hammered last year with it, but this year just one or two episodes. I was a gardener for a long time, so I don't know ff that triggered me.

1 hour ago, StringJunky said:

Yeah, there is a lot of focus on gut biota. Aren't some researchers suggesting early infant exposure to peanuts? My hay fever started late in life. Got hammered last year with it, but this year just one or two episodes. I was a gardener for a long time, so I don't know ff that triggered me.

Yes I read recently that it is now recommended to expose young children to small amounts of peanuts in order to prevent them becoming allergic later.

(I remember a terrifying evening in Amsterdam with a work colleague who announced he had a life-threatening allergy to peanuts.........just as we were sitting down to dinner in an Indonesian restaurant! ARRGH!!! What a fuckwit.)

I would think 'hygiene' might be better termed exposure.
Exposure to biological pollutants during the crucial formative period of a child's auto-immune system might reduce the allergic response later in life.
There is, after all, a condition called Pica, which affects expectant mothers as a craving to eat dirt.
It is attributed to iron deficiency, but it may be partially attributed to instinctive behavior as a way for the mother to 'expose' the fetus to biological pollutants.

I myself, am allergic to ragweed/goldenrod, having lived almost my first decade in Italy, where these weeds are not common.
The allergy came on suddenly in my late twenties ( thought I had a cold for the months of September and October ), but gradually went away by my 50s; so there is hope String Junky.
I am also allergic to Alpha blockers ( eye drops ) which manifests as red bumpy irritation under my eye-lids and blurry ( more so than usual ) vision.
No other allergies.

3 hours ago, MigL said:

I myself, am allergic to ragweed/goldenrod, having lived almost my first decade in Italy, where these weeds are not common.

I wonder if early ragweed exposure is much guarantor of avoiding that allergy. My early life was in Kansas, which is just swimming in ragweed pollen and I had some allergy to it, off and on. Like yours, it abated in later life. (Goldenrod is the state flower of Nebraska, btw, and there's an amusing story about a governor's event manager who organized some gathering in which she thought it would be a nice touch to have vases of goldenrod set out everywhere at this banquet. About 30% of the population is allergic to the ragweed family, so there were all these people sneezing and wiping their eyes before someone figured out what was going on...)

4 hours ago, exchemist said:

Yes I read recently that it is now recommended to expose young children to small amounts of peanuts in order to prevent them becoming allergic later.

(I remember a terrifying evening in Amsterdam with a work colleague who announced he had a life-threatening allergy to peanuts.........just as we were sitting down to dinner in an Indonesian restaurant! ARRGH!!! What a fuckwit.)

I saw that, too. With foods it does seem that desensitization protocols are pretty useful. I worked for a while with a nutritionist who advanced the theory that exposure to certain foods with pesticide/herbicide residues could trigger allergy formation. The idea being that the body would start to associate the food with toxicity. She fed her young children all organic foods, hoping to diminish such an effect.

I think I've had some Indonesian cuisine. There was a peanut sauce, anyway. Fortunately my dinner partner and I were both PB junkies.

19 hours ago, MigL said:

I would think 'hygiene' might be better termed exposure.
Exposure to biological pollutants during the crucial formative period of a child's auto-immune system might reduce the allergic response later in life.
There is, after all, a condition called Pica, which affects expectant mothers as a craving to eat dirt.
It is attributed to iron deficiency, but it may be partially attributed to instinctive behavior as a way for the mother to 'expose' the fetus to biological pollutants.

Yes, to some degree, but I think "pollutants" leads things a bit astray again. What is being argued in the paper (and a series of other papers) is that the exposures are more dynamic interactions with the environment, including microbiota. Importantly, these are likely not point exposuires. And instead of pollutants, one might thing of them as biosignatures of the environment the children live in. I.e. by continually being exposed and interacting with biomolecules in their environment, the immune system is learning about what is a regular/normal situation for the child.

It should be noted that this could include potentially harmful exposures and I think the jury is still somewhat out whether that helps in the long run or not.

19 hours ago, exchemist said:

(I remember a terrifying evening in Amsterdam with a work colleague who announced he had a life-threatening allergy to peanuts.........just as we were sitting down to dinner in an Indonesian restaurant! ARRGH!!! What a fuckwit.)

Cool, does he also have seafood allergy? I know a great sushi place!

1 hour ago, CharonY said:

Yes, to some degree, but I think "pollutants" leads things a bit astray again. What is being argued in the paper (and a series of other papers) is that the exposures are more dynamic interactions with the environment, including microbiota. Importantly, these are likely not point exposuires. And instead of pollutants, one might thing of them as biosignatures of the environment the children live in. I.e. by continually being exposed and interacting with biomolecules in their environment, the immune system is learning about what is a regular/normal situation for the child.

It should be noted that this could include potentially harmful exposures and I think the jury is still somewhat out whether that helps in the long run or not.

Cool, does he also have seafood allergy? I know a great sushi place!

Haha. He survived somehow but it was a sweaty evening and we went somewhere else the following night.

I'm actually gradually testing myself to see if the intolerance to oysters that I picked up about 20 years ago has gone. I tried a couple at the Loch Fyne Oyster Bar the year before last and was fine. It wasn't a full allergic reaction I used to get, just nausea and diarrhoea. Suspect it was brought on by one in France eaten in summertime (they don't seem to worry about whether or not there is a R in the month) and then I found every time I had them I would feel lousy for 24hrs, so I gave them up. These things do sometimes pass. One of my brothers became intolerant to crustaceans for about a decade - but now he's fine again.

1 hour ago, exchemist said:

Haha. He survived somehow but it was a sweaty evening and we went somewhere else the following night.

I'm actually gradually testing myself to see if the intolerance to oysters that I picked up about 20 years ago has gone. I tried a couple at the Loch Fyne Oyster Bar the year before last and was fine. It wasn't a full allergic reaction I used to get, just nausea and diarrhoea. Suspect it was brought on by one in France eaten in summertime (they don't seem to worry about whether or not there is a R in the month) and then I found every time I had them I would feel lousy for 24hrs, so I gave them up. These things do sometimes pass. One of my brothers became intolerant to crustaceans for about a decade - but now he's fine again.

This seemed an interesting article yesterday .I wonder is there any connection to allergies?

I have no allergies but my brother is intolerant to onions.

Why some animals can eat poison and cheat death

Creatures consuming species that contain deadly toxins have evolved a suite of clever strategies to stay alive.

From a quick skim, most examples refer to specific mechanisms that have been selected as a part of co-evolutionary process. Allergies seem to be more linked on an individual (developmental) time scale.

2 hours ago, geordief said:

This seemed an interesting article yesterday .I wonder is there any connection to allergies?

I have no allergies but my brother is intolerant to onions.

Why some animals can eat poison and cheat death

Creatures consuming species that contain deadly toxins have evolved a suite of clever strategies to stay alive.

On 11/21/2025 at 7:09 AM, geordief said:

Why some animals can eat poison and cheat death

Creatures consuming species that contain deadly toxins have evolved a suite of clever strategies to stay alive.

Bear in mind that poisonous creatures also have strategies for not being poisoned by their own toxin.