Friday, 23 September 2011

Filling Your Allergy Cup

My dance instructor is a spritely 72-year-old man. The other day, he came to see me for an allergic rash. The rash was spread throughout his whole body and his skin was atrophied (i.e. thin) as a result of too much steroids (consumed as well as used on the skin for the last 2 years).

Ironically, he was trying to recommend a multi-level-marketing product he was consuming which was supposedly good for people with bad skin. After testing him, I found that he had developed multiple allergies to most of the supplements he was consuming!

The question is this: why did he develop an allergy at the ripe old age of 72?

My good friend, an allergist from London has this hyphothesis: Our allergy profile is like a cup and the allergens are the substances that fill the cup. For those who have an extreme genetic predisposition to allergy, the cup is already three quarters to almost full, whereas those with less allergic tendencies, the cup may be relative empty at first. 

More than three decades ago, when i first started my medical practice, I hardly saw any allergic conditions. Fast forward 30 years and there is an epidermic proportion of allergies. 

Why?......

We have been filling the cup of allergy with the sheer number of mind boggling chemicals in our daily use ranging from soaps, detergents, toothpastes and processed foods. Even when we take 'real' food, most are contaminated with weedicides and pesticides. With air pollutants included, it's not hard to see how the cup can fill quickly. When the cup overflows, allergy appears. 

I think this is quite an accurate assessment of what has gone wrong. What do we do to reverse the process? I think we have to re-educate ourselves and more importantly, our children to avoid, as much as possible, all the aforementioned allergens. 

Eat simple and as far as possible, eat organic. Use the most basic few daily use products that have the least likelihood of causing allergies (paraben-free and fragrance-free, for example). Remember that in the old days, most of these products were very basic and less likely to cause allergy.

Educate our young to eat healthy and use less products with chemicals in them

My learning continues.

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