We are slowly beginning to understand how our immune systems work, which will help us prevent allergies – but more research is desperately needed
If it seems as though everyone around you has been sneezing, coughing and wheezing more often this summer, you’re not imagining things. Allergies are both becoming more common and getting worse. In some ways, this is not news. Respiratory allergy, asthma, eczema and food allergy rates have all been ticking upward for at least the past 50 years. Currently, approximately 30-40% of the global population has at least one allergic condition.
Industrialisation, urbanisation, changing diets, overuse of antibiotics and the climate crisis – with its warming temperatures, increased flooding and wildfires – are all exacerbating the difficulties our immune systems face as they are exposed to more and more things. So recently, if you’ve felt like your body is becoming more and more irritated by the world around it, you’re probably correct. In essence, our immune cells are being overwhelmed by modern life – more pollen in the air from both native and invasive plants; all the chemicals that we use in products, from detergents to shampoos; particulate matter from the fuels we burn. Even our companion animals – all the dogs, cats and birds that live inside our homes – are developing allergies. All of our immune systems are struggling to keep up with the changes we’ve been making over the past 200 years.
Theresa MacPhail is a medical anthropologist and author of Allergic: How Our Immune System Reacts to a Changing World
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