7 Possible Reasons for the Recent Rises in New Food Allergies

Allergies don’t tend to be something you associate with aging.

You get your allergies ironed out when you’re younger. You’ve been around long enough to figure out what agrees with you and what doesn’t. And over the years, you’ve surely developed resistance to the things that weren’t that big of a deal.

Right? Actually, that’s an imperfect picture of how allergies work and the increasing threat they present to seniors as they get older. And in reality, you may struggle more to cope with the symptoms of allergic reactions as you age, especially if you’re already living with chronic diseases that make life difficult or sap your energy.

To make matters worse, declining health often masks your symptoms, causing you to blame them on your condition rather than seek proper treatment.

It May Surprise You to Learn That Allergies are the 5th Leading Cause of Chronic Illness in the US (1).

According to FARE (Food Allergy Research & Education) (2), as many as 15 million Americans may be living with food allergies, and the number is growing faster than ever, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recording a 50% increase in food allergies among children between 1997 and 2011 (2). It isn’t just a health problem either, the financial toll of food allergies in children amounts to about $25 billion annually (2).

Some experts predict that as populations all around the globe begin to reach their senior years, we’ll see even more of this phenomenon (3).

Why Are Allergies on the Rise?

There are many different theories for why we’re seeing more food and other types of allergies in adults and children now. As usual, it’s probably a combination of causes, and, as usual, it’s probably closely tied to the modern lifestyle.

1. Modern Humans Live a More Complex Life

We’re more mobile, for one, and it’s far more likely you’ll grow old in a place far away from where you grew up, which might introduce new allergens into your environment or diet that you were seldom subjected to when you were younger.

But even for the stationary human, the environment has grown more complex. With air pollution, chemicals in the water, and increased levels of stress that tax the immune system, your body is constantly attempting to adjust.

2. Poor Health and Immunity

People with one allergy often have other allergies as well. This signifies a bigger issue than the particular allergy in question – perhaps the patients in these cases are suffering from low immune functioning, lending some credence to treatment ideas that focus on improving overall health instead of just attacking the symptoms.

3. Low-Quality Food

To outline how this works, let’s look at dogs. Anyone with a basic understanding of raising healthy dogs will tell you that skin problems can almost always be solved by simply switching them to another brand of food. See, if you look at the ingredient list of most popular commercial dog food brands, corn often makes up the majority of what they’re eating.

Corn has little to no nutritional value in a dog’s diet, doesn’t give them the energy they need, is hard to digest, and can cause other problems.

This example is a testament to how poor quality food creates poor quality results. It’s insane to think so many dogs would have skin problems – they’re built to function and thrive on nutritional food, not fall apart.

This same concept applies to humans. Give them low-quality fuel and reap the consequences, like it or not.

To further illustrate the relationship between your overall diet and strange food allergies, consider the research that found mice with a high-fiber diet were more resistant to asthma-like attacks caused by dust mites, while mice on a low-fiber diet experienced more inflammation of the airways (4).

4. Vitamin D Deficiencies

Another food problem that deserves its own mention is lack of vitamin D. There are numerous studies show a lack of vitamin D may lead to more food allergies (5).

For example, one published in the Journal of Pediatrics revealed that babies with more than one food allergy had significantly less vitamin D – specifically implicated in the findings were allergies to milk and wheat (6).

Your best sources of vitamin D are diet and sunlight.

5. The Hygiene Hypothesis

Today’s children are raised in what we perceive as much safer environments than their ancestors were, or maybe perhaps even than you were. The same is true of the modern lifestyles of adults. Your grandfather would laugh at your pampered life.

We tend to see this comfort and safety as a good thing, but is it really?

One theory says that our contact with dirt and germs prepares us for life. If you kill off all the bacteria in your gut with antibiotics, you don’t get a chance to build up a resistance to Nature’s threats. This might put you in good standing for the time being, but it also might make you less able to fend off diseases as you get older.

Bacteria that live inside your digestive system are crucial for healthy functioning. One study from the University of Chicago suggested that Clostridia might even block peanut allergies and are looking to create a pill form (7).

Earlier studies showed that removal of the same gut bacteria (through use of antibiotics…) led to more food allergies (8).

6. Or Maybe We’re “Playing” With Our Food Too Much

Your food is typically taken a long way from its natural state by the time it reaches your plate. It’s often heavily-processed. It also may be full of hormones that mess with your body, and farmers are finding it necessary to use more herbicides and insecticides in the fields.

What about genetic modification? Playing with food biology can cause unexpected problems, possibly making allergens that already exist stronger or creating completely new ones. An example of this is the controversy surrounding genetically-modified soy (9).

There are tons of additives in our food as well, leaving many ingredient lists unreadable to the average human.

7. Medications

Finally, a problem that is especially unique to the elderly is side effects to medication. Many drugs can cause allergic reactions themselves, lead to new allergies, or compound the effects of allergies you already have.

What Should You Do to Protect Yourself?

Many of the above causes point to getting back to holistic health, primarily concerning your diet, and simple lifestyles as a way to combat allergies – along with a host of other health issues that plague people of all ages. Fresh air, organic and nutritious food, less demanding lifestyles, and better solutions to declining health than pharmaceuticals.

Through a focus on your health, you may very well fend off allergies completely. At the very least, you’ll significantly limit their effects.

Beyond that, always let your doctor know when you’re facing a problem you can’t handle on your own, and inform them of known allergies to avoid conflict with new medications.

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