So what are Allergies?
Allergies are your body’s reaction to normally harmless substances such as pollen, nuts, and more. Reactions range from mild to life-threatening, such as in the case of anaphylaxis.
Essentially, your immune system ‘glitches’ and overreacts because it struggles to determine whether to initiate a Type 1 or Type 2 immune response to allergens- as they are technically harmless. system is oversensitized and releases chemicals- such as histamine- which gives you your runny nose, watery eyes, etc.
Type 1 Immune Response
Function: targets and kills pathogens directly
Target: intracellular pathogens, such as viruses and bacteria
Type 2 Immune Response
Function: expels foreign substances or pathogens
Target: primarily parasites and other external threats
Thats annoying. Do we know why we’ve evolved to have allergies?
Short answer: No. But……. We can analyze this phenomenon through the lens of developmental psychology or more specifically: Nature vs. Nurture.
Nature vs. Nurture. That sounds familiar, what was that again?
Nature vs. Nurture started out as a debate against whether Nature or Nurture factors play a more important role in development. The general consensus now is that both factors play important interacting roles. We will explore this further with allergies.
Nature
Refers to the genetic material/ innate traits that one naturally has.
Nurture
Refers to environmental factors that could impact one’s development.
Here is where we diverge:
Explore the timeline of how how our understanding of allergies has evolved.
Explore mainstream hypotheses related to allergies.
