01/20/09 11:30 - ID#47470

Allergies and Winter

I love winter. I know it seems insane because everyone hates it but one thing I really love about it, is the lack of allergies. Both here in the winter and in AZ in the hot summer I have no allergies. Other than that I am allergic all the time.

Today, I started to think about the reasons why in Buffalo you would be so allergic to all that is natural, flower, animals, tree, dirt, etc and it hit me. You know how they say that children raised in sterile environments get allergies because their immune systems don't get the chance to properly develop. Well, first of all my mom's house is super clean. However, I was also born during the blizzard of 77 in January. There was no exposure to outdoor stuff until way into may I think. P.S. my birthday is on thrusday and I will be 32.

In general all people in winter climates have no exposure to pollen etc for months on end followed by massive exposure all at once.

Summary: In general, winter provides months of sterile outside. I wonder if that in turn leads to more allergies.

I guess there are some relations between cold month babies and asthma

tinypliny writes at 05:25:00 01/23/09 - Comment #44806: That's very interesting and part of the "Hygiene Hypothesis" proposed in 1989 by Strachen. Just a year back, Garn and Renz wrote a review article in "Immunobiology" building up a good case for this hypothesis. However, I do have my own doubts about the validity of the hypothesis. Microbes and allergens like Pollen might have an effect on shaping the immune system but so does breast-feeding. Breast-feeding touched a historical nadir here in the US in the 50s through 80s. Mothers went to work before the weaning period was over and babies born in those decades received a lesser quota of immune influences from their mothers than other generations. I wonder how much this affected allergy rates in adulthood.

Allergies used to be very uncommon in India. You could argue that this was because of the "hygiene hypothesis" but it could also be because breast-feeding is heavily stressed and practiced. In recent years, allergy rates in young kids have been increasing - probably because young mothers no longer take long maternity leaves and return to work leaving their kids in daycare. Breast-feeding is slowly on the decline as my country slowly sinks into workaholism. :(

Interesting References:
1. Strachan, D.P., 1989. Hay fever, hygiene, and household size. BMJ 299, 1259â€"1260.
:::link:::

2. Garn et. al. Epidemiological and immunological evidence for the hygiene hypothesis Immunobiology
Volume 212, Issue 6, 27 June 2007, 441-452 :::link:::

3. Mutius vE. Allergies, infections and the hygiene hypothesis â€" The epidemiological evidence
Immunobiology Volume 212, Issue 6, 27 June 2007, Pages 433-439 :::link:::

metalpeter writes at 06:16:04 01/21/09 - Comment #44701: Happy Birthday!!!!!

I don't know that much about why people have allergies. There are different kinds of them some people don't have the enzyemes to break down milk sugar and other things. But then there is the kind where what makes you allergic is that what your body is exposed to will do you no harm, but for some reason your body reads it as a danger and that is what causes the problem. You bring up a good point about things being to clean. You see these ads for cleaners where they say it kills everything and keeps your baby safe. That isn't true Babies need to be exposed to germs, I mean you don't want to make the kid sick on purpose. But they need to get a little bit of germs so the body can learn how to fight it off, and then over time get stronger. Yes there are exceptions like with premeies or anyone with a not fully devolped Imune system sorry I don't remember the medical term for that.

trisha writes at 01:06:37 01/21/09 - Comment #44685: hmm... i wonder if you ate local honey it'd do any good... it is supposed to work wonders for that sort of thing.