SC - Allergies

[Jessica Tiffin]

Greetings all.

Corwyn wrote:
>I don't know of any studies about this, but a large percentage of put
>population seems to have allergies of soem sort. My personal opinion is that
>most of them are a combination of stress and over examination by Doctors. Add
>to this the ammount of food we eat out of season from all over the world (and
>I'll bet you'll find that more and more of your population has these problems
>over the years) and other strange enviromental factors, and I think we're
>asking for it. At one time we were able to adapt, but fact is, we're hit by
>allergy pathogens at such a rate now, we can't adjust. Just an opinion taken
>from years of reading on the subject.
I suspect that levels of things like pollution are also encouraging
pathogens to over-react at the drop of a smoke emission, in which case South
Africa will be very quickly catching up with the USA allergy levels (Cape
Town, despite its regular south-easter wind, has acquired a smog layer in
the ten years that I've lived in the city.  Tragic.)  As a corollory, though
- - I think the South African lifestyle is very much less inclined towards
processed foods than the American one seems to be - a lot of people cook
habitually with fresh ingredients.

>Also, what are the relitive ages of people in your Shire? The individuals I
>know of on the list talking about allergies are about my age (40) or a little
>older::Ducking::, and I didn't develope my allergy until my late 20's. We
>think it's mostly an iodine thing, my system getting more than enough of the
>stuff from the local produce (A lot of South Carolina used to be sea bottom,
>and the local produce is full of iodine and other minerals).. 
This is a youngish Shire, but average ages must be late 20s/early 30s.  But
it's not just SCA experience I'm thinking of - I can really think of very
few people who I know in any context who actually have serious allergy
problems - certainly nothing like the "three of my friends are allergic to
woolly mammoths" scenarios which so many list members report.

Fascinating comparison, but also rather alarming - given that I've noticed
an increase just in personal experience in my mild hayfever reaction over
the last ten years, I think we will not be long in developing the allergies
which a modern technological lifestyle is heir to.  Nothing for it.  Run for
the hills!!

doom-laden,

Melisant


**********
Jessica Tiffin
melesine at ilink.nis.za  *  jessica at beattie.uct.ac.za
***********
Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease.  It made
you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on.
(Terry Pratchett, Hogfather).

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