Reply #64: Here is an interesting little snippet

[MissB]

From this link: http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/conditions/05/18/peanut.allergies/

"As a country becomes more developed, allergy rises and rises. And the notion there is that in the more-developed countries, you may be getting less exposure to infections and germs and other things that may stimulate your immune system in a direction other than allergy," Wood said. "The more your immune system is kept busy by exposure to germs and infections early in life, the less time it can devote to things like allergy."

Anne Muñoz-Furlong, head of FAAN, says "Perhaps our homes are too clean -- we've done too much to take away the job of the immune system. We don't have parasites, a lot of the childhood diseases you vaccinate and don't have, so maybe for some people, the immune system is looking for something to do and decides, 'Aha, I don't like milk' or 'I don't like peanuts,'" and the body then attacks the food protein as if it were an enemy invader."

Another theory researchers are looking at is that children are exposed too early to peanuts.

Adding to the confusion is that in countries like Indonesia and Thailand, where peanuts are ubiquitous, there is virtually no peanut allergy, leaving the experts to concede they really don't know for sure why food allergies are on the rise.



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The whole "clean house" thing probably explains why my kids don't have peanut allergies. :rofl: