Allergies in Americans Increasing
One thing is apparent when researchers looked at historical allergy data and the data of today, and how many Americans are suffering from reported allergies. There are a LOT more people with allergies today than yesteryear.
There is much speculation about why that is, including global warming and the effects it has on pollenation, things like ragweed and mold which are huge allergens, and the overall environment getting more polluted because of industrialization.
There are other theories as well though out there that are less reported, that much of the allergies increasing is due to dietary and lifestyle factors as well.
It is well known that certain foods cause allergies, but what if the foods and the preservatives, and all the other chemicals in today’s diet of processed foods were actually making your body more allergic to everything?
It is quite possible that eating the processed and sugary foods of today has worsened the allergic response, making people overly sensitive to things that normally would be brushed off in a light, barely detectable allergic body response.
While the climate change explanation is plausible, I tend to believe it is a mounting of several factors that leads to the increase in allergies in adults and children here in the US. It’s certainly partly due to pollution and environmental factors.
It is also partially due to dietary factors, which can exacerbate and totally aggravate allergies. For example, I have asthma. I know that when I eat a lot of sugar or a very high carb diet, I get asthma even worse. I also know that my asthma gets worse when I am stressed out.
My asthma is rarely only affected by the ragweed count, however, it is sensitive to mold, and my asthma will be triggered by high mold counts. But it still is more sensitive to stress and mold than anything else, as well as sugar.
It goes to show that allergies aren’t all just environmental. Many times the foods we put into our bodies determine how allergic we will be to certain common allergens.