Brekkjern wrote:Kamak wrote:Syobon wrote:On the rise of allergies, two theories:
- underexposed immune systems. An obsession with hygiene and overprotection (children not allowed to play outside etc) has made immune systems "lazy": exposure to micro-organims will stimulate white blood cells production and train them to recognise malignant ones. This somehow causes the immune system to overreact when a foreign element is introduced, which is what an allergy is.
- dioxines and hormones in food wrecking shit.
I have a shitload of allergies. However, pretty much all of them have to do with genetics. I'm very susceptible to medications, especially ones for neurological disorders (like epilepsy meds). In total, I'm deathly allergic to over 30 medications I've tried. I actually need to start carrying a list of them in my wallet... just in case.
The two "normal" allergies I have are for pollen (mostly cedar, which is horrible because we live in a region that is like 80% cedar) and latex (though, not as much an allergy as "oh my god this stuff is melting to my skin"). Strangely though, I'm only allergic to certain latex, like certain types of gloves and latex-based tape. I got that allergy from my Grandma on my dad's side. My mom's side is the one that gave me the cedar allergy.
Are you supposed to be alive?
I didn't think it was possible to be allergic to so many things...
To be fair, most of the medications I'm allergic to treat very specific things. About 20 of the 30 meds I'm allergic to have to do with treating my epilepsy. I bodaciously ran out of meds to take so I ended up having to take a drug-free route. Also, since I first took these meds when I was 4 years old, (and half of them were meant for adults anyways), I may actually not be allergic to them anymore, but it's not something doctors are willing to check because of how severe my reactions to many of them were (similarly, I ended up almost dying from an allergic reaction to an anti-inflammatory medicine when I was 18 months old. They gave it to me to stop swelling in my ear and it stopped my heart instantly (something that wasn't even a known side effect). Whoops.). Also, one of my allergies is to Sulfa, which is a very common drug allergy (upwards of 5% of the human population in developed countries is estimated to have a Sulfa allergy (which, oddly enough doesn't mean your allergic to all forms of sulfa or all forms of sulfonamides, so even if you're not allergic to one type, you could be terribly allergic to another)).
The rest of the allergies are (ironically enough) allergies to allergy management drugs for my cedar pollen allergy. Most of these drugs wouldn't kill me to take, however, they wreck my shit up, and make me very prone to opportunistic infections due to a compromised immune system.
Also, while I'm NOT allergic to sunlight, I do have a photic sneeze reflex. I could be outside in the shade for 5 minutes and take two step into the sunlight, and suddenly sneezing. It doesn't affect me of I'm constantly in sunlight or if I'm constantly switching between sunlight and shade (like walking alongside a bunch of trees), but if I walk in the shade next to a building, and come out into sunlight, I almost always sneeze.
