The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

PasturesNew

Pyxis wrote: »

I've been wondering about Pastures............


Pastures, did you get your tooth sorted out?

Yep, all done. Just got to pop back for a clean in about 2 weeks' time.

Pyxis

michaels wrote: »

So the lack of spring whilst pretty miserable for the kids, has had the advantage that apart from a few days at the end of Jan my hay fever hasn't been too bad...unfortunately that has resulted on spring happening all at once for all the trees over the last few days and I am suffering and how

Does the old-fashioned vaseline up the nose trick work for you at all? It might be worth a try.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Pyxis wrote: »

That's interesting.

I was only reading a couple of days ago that almonds aren't true nuts, they are drupes, so there might be something about them that doesn't make them as allergenic as true nuts.

Mind you, peanuts aren't nuts either. They are legumes. And they are very allergenic!

I'm highly allergic to peanuts. (like properly fatal allergy, anaphylaxis, etc) And also interestingly to Chickpeas.

But not at all to other members of the legume family like peas, beans or lentils.

I'm also moderately allergic to some tree nuts like hazelnuts, etc. (annoying but not serious)

Fortunately I'm not at all allergic to almonds. (Mmmm, yummy Marzipan)

zagubov

Was hearing the other day that there's no evidence of allergies before the 19th century. I got hay fever after living near fields of oilseed rape 30-odd years ago. Seems to finally be declining (a bit) now I've moved away.

Pyxis

zagubov wrote: »

Was hearing the other day that there's no evidence of allergies before the 19th century. I got hay fever after living near fields of oilseed rape 30-odd years ago. Seems to finally be declining (a bit) now I've moved away.

That , though, might surely be because they didn't recognise it as 'allergy' but just thought it was a 'cold'?

I mean, I could understand it if the only allergens were to things that came about around the time of the industrial and farming revolutions, but some allergens are to things we've been exposed to for generations....... grass, cats, native tree and flower pollens.

Or, do you mean that something has triggered our bodies into reacting to things we've previously lived with happily for generations? And that particular something was to do with the industrial revolution?

silvercar

zagubov wrote: »

Was hearing the other day that there's no evidence of allergies before the 19th century. I got hay fever after living near fields of oilseed rape 30-odd years ago. Seems to finally be declining (a bit) now I've moved away.

No evidence because people had anaphylaxis type reactions and dropped dead, reason unknown?

GDB2222

zagubov wrote: »

Was hearing the other day that there's no evidence of allergies before the 19th century. I got hay fever after living near fields of oilseed rape 30-odd years ago. Seems to finally be declining (a bit) now I've moved away.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28038630

This suggests it was recognised near the beginning of the 19th century and the seasonal connection was spotted. But it's a good question why it was not noticed millennia ago? It may be that the industrial emissions sensitised us, or even just smoke from coal fires?

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28038630

This suggests it was recognised near the beginning of the 19th century and the seasonal connection was spotted. But it's a good question why it was not noticed millennia ago? It may be that the industrial emissions sensitised us, or even just smoke from coal fires?

One reason mght be that the majority of people never used to travel more than maybe a 20-mile radius, and a lot of people even less than that, so perhaps when travel became easier, people started getting exposed to different allergens?

A bit like when you go on holiday you might have a bit of diarrhoea for the first couple of days because of the 'different' water, etc.

Mind you, we all used to be nomadic, didn't we, initially?

Oh, I don't know! It's all a mystery!

My gut feeling still is that it's just a lot more recognised for what it is, rather than it occurs a lot more.
Unless that's something else we can blame electricity for?
Although GDB's suggestion of increasing pollution being a sensitiser is a good one.

LydiaJ

Pyxis wrote: »

One reason mght be that the majority of people never used to travel more than maybe a 20-mile radius, and a lot of people even less than that, so perhaps when travel became easier, people started getting exposed to different allergens?

A bit like when you go on holiday you might have a bit of diarrhoea for the first couple of days because of the 'different' water, etc.

Mind you, we all used to be nomadic, didn't we, initially?

Oh, I don't know! It's all a mystery!

My gut feeling still is that it's just a lot more recognised for what it is, rather than it occurs a lot more.
Unless that's something else we can blame electricity for?
Although GDB's suggestion of increasing pollution being a sensitiser is a good one.

There's a hypothesis (as yet, I think, neither proved nor disproved) that allergies are more common when children are exposed to fewer germs and less dirt. If it's true, that might explain some of it too.

Pyxis

LydiaJ wrote: »

There's a hypothesis (as yet, I think, neither proved nor disproved) that allergies are more common when children are exposed to fewer germs and less dirt. If it's true, that might explain some of it too.

Yes, I read that somewhere, too.


Sort of, like, thing.... if your immune system hasn't got many real germs to have a go at, it will get bored, so will go looking for things it can pretend are germs, just to have something to do!