August 8, 2018 • 37 mins
As Will and Mango sniffle through their hay fever they answer this season's biggest questions: What are allergies? How close are we to a cure? And is putting Vaseline up your nose a good lifehack for stopping pollen?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Guess what, mengo, what's that will? So last year click
Hold did this ridiculous article that I just found so funny,
like I do many of their articles, but the title
of it was security failure. Epipen's database of everyone who's
allergic to bees has been obtained by Bees. Here's a
line from the article. So it was this prepared statement
from the company's website, the EpiPen company website, and it says,
(00:23):
we do not know what they planned to do with it,
but we can confirm that Bees have a list of
everyone who has ever purchased an EpiPen bees heavier information.
Now we are very sorry. You know what strange is
My dad has a severe allergy to fire ants and
we only realized this when he was in his forties.
Were in Florida visiting Disney World and Cypress Gardens, and
(00:44):
this is when we were kids. He got bitten and
then rushed away. Like my mom said, his face welled
up like modern shore and pure luck, which is just
such a dated reference, but that's what she always brings
up when we talk about this. It is a pretty
dated reference, but it was also a pretty funny and
diculous scene. But back to your dad, like I assume
he was, okay, yeah, I mean my dad being my dad,
(01:05):
he just played it down the whole time. And it
actually ended up being a strangely wonderful day for us
because while my parents were at the hospital, my aunt
and uncle were with us, and we somehow got to
pet a baby white tiger like one of the people
at Cypress Gardens let us do this. So in my
memory of the tiger cup plays a much much larger
role in the day than my dad's not being there.
(01:26):
You were obviously really concerned about your dad great son,
but you know now my dad just carries his EpiPen
with him everywhere, which is a literal lifesaver. Well, I
know we both suffer from allergies at least to some degree,
and you know what, the pollen count as high as
it's been today, felt like a good time to do
a show on what allergies actually are and and think
(01:47):
about how close we are to finding a cure for
different types of allergies, and also, of course answering the
question is putting vassoline up your nose a good life
hack for stopping pollen? So let's dive in. Hekay their
(02:19):
podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
and as always I'm joined by my good friend manga
shot Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof
glass keeping his allergies at bay by brushing his teeth,
of all things, that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, Mango,
I'll admit I thought Tristan had lost his mind yet
again when he told us that he started treating his
(02:39):
allergies with toothpaste, But in doing our reading for this week,
it turns out it's a legitimate treatment, and Mango, you
can back me up on this, right. Yeah, it's a
real thing. It's called aller dent and it basically works
the same way as typical allergy shots, where you, you know,
inject a tiny amount of an allergen as a way
to get your body used to it, except in this case,
the allergen extract is exed into your toothpaste instead of
(03:01):
loaded into a needle. And it is just such a
remarkable idea. You know, I have allergies. I often forget
to take my medication, but I don't forget to brush
my teeth, and it seems like a simple solution plus
it feels way less daunting than going in for like
an expensive shot every single week. Oh definitely. I mean
the only downside right now is that it can be
pretty tough to get your hands on the toothpaste at
(03:23):
the current moment. And and that's because even though allergy
and extracts are FDA approved, it's only approved for shots
right now. But my guess is it won't be too
long before the toothpaste will be pretty easy to access.
But you know, as we shift from one allergy season
to another, we thought it might be a good time
to take a closer look at the world of allergies.
(03:44):
That's right, So we're gonna explore some unusual ways to
keep allergies in check, as well as the science behind
what causes them and even the history of why we
get them in the first place. But why don't we
start with what allergies actually are since we tend to
throw around the term pretty loosely. Like often you'll hear
people say they're allergic to something when you know they
might have some kind of intolerance but not an actual allergy. Yeah,
(04:06):
like somebody might be lactose intolerant, but that's not the
same thing as being allergic to milk, or they might
have a sensitivity to gluten, but eating bread doesn't, you know,
make them break out in hives or anything. But let's
talk about what the actual distinction is and and first
of all, like what makes an allergy an allergy? So
the term was coined in nine six by pediatrician in Vienna,
(04:27):
and he came up with it by joining the words
for different and reaction, and the idea was basically, if
someone is allergic to pollen or whatever, they're having a
different or unusual reaction to something considered harmless. But the
thing that really defines allergies is their underlying cause. And
the reason we have such extreme reactions to these otherwise
harmless substances is because of a hypersensitive immune system. So
(04:49):
rather than targeting genuine threats like a virus, the immune
system misidentifies something safe as dangerous and in the process
our our body takes these defensive measures to try and
expel the irritant as fast as possible. That's why you
get like a runny nose or you start sneezing, because
it's trying to get the stuff out. And that's what
we associate with allergies. But if you want to get
(05:09):
a little more scientific about it, these symptoms are the
result of a chemical called histamine, and when allergenic materials
bind to antibodies and the blood, the blood responds by
releasing tons and tons of histamine. The histamine then attaches
itself to cells in the nose and sinuses. It causes
all the blood vessels to expand, and it sends the
mucus production into overdrive, which is why we take and histamines.
(05:33):
You know, It's obviously one of those terms I think
we've always heard and we've known to take these things,
but not really thought about what that actually means. So
I get the general sense of what allergies are, but
is a peanut allergy the same thing as a pollen allergy,
but just like we're reacting to different substances or what
is it exactly? Yeah, So it kind of helps to
(05:55):
know that most allergies break down into two different groups,
and the first is called allergic rhind itis or this
is hay fever. And this category includes what we call
seasonal allergies, so things like pollen, mold spores, the stuff
that crops up in the spring and summer, and it
also includes perennial allergies that bug people all here, like
dust mites, cockroaches, and pet dander, all right, So this
(06:17):
is what most people think of when they think about allergies,
like the kind of thing that makes you sneeze and
itch and feel congestion or even be lethargic, I guess exactly.
But things get more serious with the second type of allergy,
which of those brought on by food and also like
animal venom medications, even contact with materials like latex. And
(06:38):
in these cases, the body is still responding to an
ireritant by pumping out the histamines, but it's at a
completely different pace. It's doing this way way more aggressively,
so much so that when someone with an allergy eats
shellfish or it gets stung by b they just skip
that itchy I phase we know about, and it goes
straight into anaphylaxis. And that's the severe situation where your
(06:59):
air ways close up, you swell, your throat and tongue
sort of swell as well, and your blood pressure tends
to drop. All right. So the process is more or
less the same for all kinds of allergies. It's just
that some prompt more extreme reactions than others, right, And
the thing to remember is, in either case, it isn't
the allergyen that's attacking your body. It's actually your immune
(07:19):
system overreacting. And even though we understand how the process works,
we don't really know how people develop allergies in the
first place. I mean, something is causing our immune system
to lose it, but we still aren't sure what that is. Yeah,
that's true, But we do have a couple of promising
leads on this. I mean, for one thing, we know
that our genetics play a factor in whether or not
we develop allergies. Actually, I was looking at this series
(07:42):
of twins studies that examine both fraternal and identical twins,
and the results were really interesting. So, first you take
fraternal twins and when one of them has a peanut allergy,
the rate of the other having a peanut allergy as
well was actually only about seven per cent. But you
look at idea of cool twins who share the same genes,
(08:02):
both twins were allergic in sixty percent of cases. So
it's a pretty significant difference, huh. I mean, there's actually
another reason to think of genetics as the root of allergies,
which is that the tendency to have allergies is actually
something we inherit from our parents. So you know, well,
that doesn't mean that like, because your mom has a
fish allergy, you're definitely gonna have a fish allergy. It
(08:22):
just means that, you know, you have a higher chance
of developing an allergy to something. H Well, I mean,
there's obviously something there, but genetics aren't the only factor.
And who does or doesn't get allergies And another big one,
not surprisingly is the environment. After all, if you aren't
exposed to a particular allergy and there's no way to
develop an allergy to it, Like you know, take somebody
(08:44):
who lives in the desert, I mean, they're not likely
to have a pollen allergy since there isn't much plant
life and pollen to even be exposed to their Yeah,
I mean the environmental component is interesting because it's sort
of works both ways. Like, uh, the flip side is
that being exposed to common allergies can also reduce your
chances of developing an allergy to them. And the key
(09:05):
here is really being exposed an early enough age. Like
we've talked about this before, but a few recent studies
have shown that children who grew up on a farm
are less likely to develop allergies than kids who grew
up in cities. Well, and that's because the farm kids
were exposed to more allergens early on, right, That's right.
So a few years back, this science Institute in Belgium
(09:26):
found that exposure to farm dust actually helps build resistance
to dust based allergies. And this works because of a
protective protein called A twenty that's produced in the mucous
membrane of the lungs. And when kids breathe in farm dust,
their lungs produce more A twenty and this reduces their
allergic reaction to other kinds of dust. But, like I said,
(09:47):
the trick is that this kind of resistance is only
built up while the lungs are still developing. So I mean,
if you're like an adult who's allergic to dust bites,
it's a little too late to solve that problem by
going out and becoming a farmer. Now, man, I guess
I'll cross that one off the list. But you know,
it's interesting how much of an impact age has on allergies.
Like I was reading how adults tend to have fewer
(10:09):
allergies than children do, especially when it comes to food allergies,
and it's far fewer allergies actually, But according to the
Food Allergy Research and Education Organization, one in thirteen kids
in the US has at least one food allergy. But
over a quarter of those kids will outgrow the food
allergies before they even reach adulthood. And research shows that
(10:30):
the earlier a child has an allergic reaction to food,
the more likely they are to outgrow it, which is why,
you know, the consensus has actually shifted in recent years
about how soon babies should be given allergenic foods, things
like eggs or peanuts. And you know, we used to
think it was dangerous to feed infants these foods until
they were at least a year old. And this, you know,
(10:52):
hasn't been that long ago. I know, even when our
oldest child was an infant, they were telling us this.
But you know, now a bunch of studies have proven
giving babies these foods when they're four to six months
old actually reduces the risk of developing allergies by as
much as I think, like eight. And the author of
the report puts it this way, you have the potential
(11:13):
to stop something in its tracks before it develops. There's
a window of time in which the body is more
likely to tolerate a food than react to it, and
if you can educate the body during that window, you're
at a much lower likelihood of developing an allergy to
that food, which makes a lot of sense, and it
also explains why some people continue to develop allergies well
into adulthood. And I guess that's because that's the time
(11:36):
when most of us are making big life changes. You know,
you're moving somewhere new, getting a pet, perhaps living on
the edge, and trying shellfish for the first time, starting
to get wild at that time, you know. But you know,
the thing I don't get is why the world's allergies
seem to be getting worse. You know, we've been reading
a lot about this, and these food allergist at Mount
(11:56):
Sina who spent the last couple of decades tracking peanut
allergies among children. And when they started this was back
in they found that one in two hundred and fifty
American children were allergic to peanuts. Now you fast forward
to two thousand ten and that number has jumped to
one in seventies, So that rate tripled in just thirteen years.
(12:16):
And well, it's true that food allergies are often misdiagnosed.
There's been a similariz in peanut allergies in countries like Canada, Australia,
the UK. And that's not even to mention you know,
the hay fever rise and asthma's on the rise and
these these same regions. So there's definitely something going on. Yeah,
some of the specifics might be up for debate still,
(12:37):
but there's no question that allergies have become a lot
more prevalent in the last thirty years or so. I
did some reading on why that might be, and one
of the biggest contributing factors seems to be rising global temperatures.
And I didn't want to believe this, but it actually
makes sense when it was explained to me. You know,
higher temperatures lead to more plant life, which leads to
more pollen, and more pollen means more allergic reaction ends.
(13:00):
And in fact, a recent study found that the spring
pollen count has increased every year since the year two
thousand and listen to these numbers. By the year twenty
there could be twenty thousand grains of pollen per cubic
meter compared to just eight thousand grains in the year
two thousand. Yikes, that's a that's a huge difference. But
(13:20):
global warming is only counting for the rhinitis cases, right,
not to mention the more serious ones. So what's causing
an increase in in things like food allergies or or
even like bea stings. Yeah, so those keys are a
little tougher to account for, but the prevailing theory is
that they're linked to our modern hygiene practices and the
ideas that are modern sterile lifestyles don't provide enough exposure
(13:41):
to potential allergens, which in turn causes our immune systems
to get board start lashing out at all the harmless
stuff like food or cat dender or whatever else. And
while it's likely that there are other factors behind the
recent rise of allergies, the hygiene theory would explain why
we mostly see this in predominantly wealthy westerns of id
s in less developed countries. You know, if your child's
(14:03):
immune system is struggling to deal with parasites from contaminated water,
then the body isn't wasting time or resources warding off
things like pollen. So if we go by the hygiene theory,
you can more or less chalk the whole allergy epidemic
up as basically first world problems. All Right, So at
this point, researchers have spent decades looking for a cure
for allergies, and the best option is still to just
(14:25):
treat the symptoms rather than cure the actual cause. But
thankfully we've got some pretty great options now, including some
of the more outside the box approaches, and we should
talk about those. But before we get to that, let's
take a quick break. You're listening to Parts and Genius,
(14:53):
and we're talking about the best ways to track and
treat your pesky allergies. So well, one of the most
effective and more obvious options for treating allergies is also
one of the most basic, and that's plain old avoidance.
And while that's pretty straightforward when it comes to food
or latex allergies, since you know, we generally have some
saying what we eat and wear, it's not as easy
(15:15):
to avoid things like pollen. And in those cases you
have to be a little more creative and a lot
more vigilant. Yeah, when you think about pollen allergies, I mean,
you really just want to minimize your exposure as much
as you can. For example, pollen counts tend to peak
between the hours of five and ten in the morning,
so if you can avoid the outdoors during that period,
you know, you might spare yourself some of the sneezing
(15:36):
and whether obviously plays a big role as well. In
those pollen counts. You've got the warm and windier days
being the worst and the cool and rainier days being
the best in in terms of the pollen counts. But
it doesn't mean you have to stay inside on those
nicest days. And one quick tip for braving pollen heavy
weather is to dab a little bit of assolene inside
(15:56):
your nostrils, and what happens there is that, you know,
the pollen and hale just get stuck in there before
it can reach your airways, which is so weird. Like
someone actually told me to do that with key, which
is uh Indian clarified butter, and they promised it worked,
and I refuse to do it because it just sounded unbelievable.
And now I basically feel like I've got to try.
(16:18):
It's gonna be walking around with some some butter up
your nose and it's it's kind of like our our
friends Sean in college whose grandmother had the cure for
everything was just to like rub some butter on his neck.
So maybe there's something to this and we should just
try these things. Well. Another simple move is to check
the pollen forecast for your area during allergy season. And
some people don't realize this, but there's actually a National
(16:41):
Allergy Bureau and it posts the current pollen and mold
levels for different regions on its website. Yeah, so the
Weather channel does that as well, and Google even pulls
up that information automatically, like if you search for pollen
or allergy information in the area. Um, you can also
set push notifications on your phone so you will always
know when the pollen count starts to climb. I mean,
(17:02):
it's pretty amazing. Yeah, and it's definitely handy to have that,
But I mean, let's be honest, not all of us
have the option of staying inside whenever pollen is is
causing big problems, nor you know, do we have the
courage to face social situations with vasoline smeared up our noses?
And you know, so in those cases, and allergy sufferer's
best friend are the antihistamine medications that we talked about earlier,
(17:24):
and you can obviously find those at your local drug store.
Not The only problem is knowing which option to go with. Now,
the good news is that there really isn't a huge
difference between stuff like ben a drill or Zyrtec or clareton.
I mean, these are all antihistamines that work by binding
to the histamine receptors in your nose and sinuses. So
instead of histamines activating these receptors and making your nose run,
(17:48):
the antihistamines muscle them out of the way and actually
take their spots, which is interesting. But you know what,
what about the nasal sprays, Like, is one more effect
have then the other in terms of pills for sprays? Actually, yeah,
I mean those nasal sprays contain corticos steroids that ultimately
help control symptoms better than their capsule counterparts, And that's
(18:11):
because the sprays don't prevent histamines from binding to their
receptors like the pills do. Instead, they actually prevent yourself
from reacting to the allergen at all, which you know,
it means there's no chance for them to even produce
histamines in the first place. Now, the only downside to
these is that these corticosteroids take longer to become effective,
so those nasal sprays do work best, but only if
(18:33):
you start taking them a couple of weeks before the
allergy season actually hits. That way, the steroids will have
built up in your system, so they'll have an easier
time controlling that immune response when allergens do crop up.
So this is particularly fascinating to me because I am
lazy about using the spray, like I take it when
I remember, but it's good to know that you sort
(18:54):
of need to use it regularly to build up your tolerance. Yeah,
and I was exactly the same way. But now a
third way to treat allergies is also the closest thing
we have to a cure for them, and that's immunotherapy. Now,
the most common examples of this are the allergy shots
we mentioned at the top of the show, and these
work much like a vaccine would, but you know, a
(19:14):
patient is basically injected with trace amounts of whatever they're
allergic to, and gradually their body builds a tolerance to
the substance until the allergic reaction is either severely reduced
or even eliminated altogether. But of course this approach also
has its drawbacks. I mean, for one thing, the shots
have to be administered every week, and not only is
(19:35):
that time consuming, it can also be pretty expensive, and
you know, especially when you consider that this kind of
treatment can go on for five years or even longer. Yeah,
I mean that's what makes that toothfaste so exciting, right,
I mean, like, I love this idea that you might
be able to treat your allergies with tooth taste, and
that someday we'll be taking sun screen through pills instead
of having to apply it badly, Like, it's amazing all
(19:57):
these ways that we're going to be getting medicines. And
I've read a little bit about that too, in terms
of the sunscreen and pill form, and it's fascinating. But
all right, well let's go back to the toothpaste show
just for a second, because I'm still a little bit
unclear on how that works, Like how do the allergens
even make it into your bloodstream? So I was wondering
that too, like it must be less effective than a shot, right,
(20:19):
But it turns out that the mouth is actually a
perfect place to administer allergy mets, and that's because the
mucus membrane in the mouth has such a high immune
response level. It's trying to make sure that we don't
do something stupid like drink a bunch of poison, and
toothpaste isn't the only way to take advantage of this.
So for years Europeans have actually used this under the
tongue allergy drop that works the same way. The biggest
(20:41):
problem was that the drops can aggravate your throat or
stomach if you accidentally swallow them, but thankfully the toothpaste
approach avoids those side effects altogether. Well, I'm definitely pulling
for this toothpaste and it just seems like such a
hassle free treatment, and much more so than any others
we've talked about. But you know, for all the parents listening,
there might actually be a fourth treatment option available not
(21:03):
to you, but to your kids. And you know, you
can think of these as preventive options, are ones that
wouldn't require you to just pick up and move to
the farm belt. But you know, for starters. There's a
study out of the University of Alberta. So it was
a two thousand seventeen report that they put out, and
the researchers claim that having a pet in the house
could be a way to help prevent not only childhood allergies,
(21:25):
but obesity as well. And I feel so guilty now
because my kids have been asking for a dog for
such a long time and we've been slow rolling. But
they actually, they actually tipped me off and paid me
a few bucks to mention this, just to kind of
guilt you into the dog. So tell me what, like,
why is this the case? Like we're we're so used
(21:46):
to hearing about people with pet allergies that it's hard
to imagine how having one could lead to the opposite result. Well,
apparently there are two types of bacteria in particular that
have been linked to a lower risk of allergies and
even obesity and babies, and the studies showed that babies
who lived with pets had way more of both types
of these Now, incredibly, these positive results held true even
(22:08):
in households where pets had passed away before the baby
was born. So you could have just gotten a really
old dog, like while Lizzie was pregnant, and maybe that
would have solved everything. But that suggests that that health
booze from these bacteria might even extend into the womb.
So if it really comes down to just two bacteria, Like,
could we ever just get some kind of pet and
(22:28):
a pill one day? I mean, uh, you know, so
you don't have to deal with any of the dog walking,
but you get all the benefits of their dirtiness. I
love that this is your solution when you're supposed to
be the dog lover of the two of us. I mean,
I am I I'd love to have a dog, but
you know, we've got family that's allergic. I I do
think our kids biggest fear is that, like now we're
just going to end up with a fish and call
(22:50):
it dog. So so you go, so the profits good
luck to see if that that trick works. Well, here's
one we don't want to encourage, but it is interesting
to read about, and that's that kids who bite their
nails and suck their thumbs actually reduced their risk of
allergies in the future. This is research that comes out
of New Zealand and the researchers were looking at this
(23:11):
long running study on thumb sucking and nail biding behaviors
and more than a thousand kids and so the participants
were quizzed on their habits at ages five seven, nine eleven,
and then finally at thirteen and at age thirteen they
were given their first skin prick test to measure their
immune responses to different allergens. Now, according to the results
(23:33):
from this, the kids that didn't engage in thumb sucking
or nail biding had a forty nine percent chance of
developing allergies. Meanwhile, you look at the kids who either
suck their thumbs or bit their nails, they actually only
had a forty risk. And what's more, the kids who
did both actually had the lowest allergy risk of all
the participants at thirty which is interesting, but it's also
(23:57):
a pretty solid defense for the hygiene theory, right, Like,
I mean, if there's a benefit to stick in your
dirty hands in your mouth, it must have something to
do with all those germs helping to strengthen your immune system. Definitely.
But again, these aren't exactly behaviors you want your kids
to take up. So who knows how many people will
actually reap the benefits from this. But you know, if
pet and a pill ever catches on, maybe there's hope
(24:19):
for dirty fingernails and a pill too. Who knows, well,
I sure hope not, But to me it all sounds
like those terrible jelly bean flavors. Oh yeah, definitely good.
But you know that there's one way of dealing with
allergies that I want to make sure recover. But before
we do that, let's take another quick break. All right, Mango,
(24:52):
So what's this last way to avoid allergies that you
wanted people to know about. It is super simple. Don't
move to McAllen, Texas. Okay, all right, so I don't
have to become a farmer, and I shouldn't move to McAllen, Texas.
This is a good advice. But all right, so why
not McAllen, Texas? So it's just not a great place
(25:13):
if you've got hay fever. And according to the Asthma
and Allergy Foundation of America the a f A. McAllen
is the number one worst city in America for allergies.
Well we can we can forget the McAllen Tourism Bureau
advertising on part time genius now at this point, all right,
but I'm curious, So what is this based on exactly?
Is it just the pollen count? So it's actually this
(25:35):
annual ranking that the foundation does and it's based on
a few different factors. So pollen count is one of them,
but it's also things like the usage rate of allergy medications,
the um number of allergy specialists in the area, and
McAllen has showed up near the bottom of the list
for a few years now, but in two thousand eighteen
they finally scored a perfect hundred on this test. And
(25:56):
to put that in perspective, Louisville, Kentucky is in second
and they only scored an eight six eight. Holy Cow,
and that does sound pretty bad. I mean, and I
know that the South in general can be pretty tough
for allergy sufferers. I know moving to Atlanta has been
a little bit rough on you with that. But you know, honestly,
you should be thankful you're not in the allergy capital
(26:16):
of the world, and that is Islamabad, which is the
capital of Pakistan. So I'd never heard this, Like, how
bad is it there? It is horrible. I mean, the
spring pollen season is so bad that many of the
wealthier citizens just go to the countryside for a few
months just to avoid it entirely. And then those who
stay behind really trying to stay indoors as much as
(26:37):
they can. But even that is rough. It was one
reporter who was speaking to a woman who actually slept
upright in a chair throughout the allergy season because otherwise,
she explained, she would just stop being able to breathe.
That is awful. I mean, it does seem like a
little backwards though, like, like, how do you wind up
with the city that has more of a pollen count
(26:57):
than the countryside around it. Well, it actually comes back
to the city design, and it's bad design. So you
go back to the nineties sixties, Islamabad was going through
a period of enormous growth and officials started looking for
ways to add stretches of green space throughout the city
and this was really just to beautify the city. But unfortunately,
(27:18):
they fell behind on this greenery project and the city
remained pretty much treeless for the better part of a
decade or so. Then years later, the city planners were
trying to make up for this lost time and they
were looking to see the entire city with these fast
growing paper mulberry trees. So all through the late sixties
you'd have helicopters flying over is Lamabads scattering these mulberry seeds.
(27:42):
And to the planners credit, the plan actually did technically
work and these trees grew quickly. They made the city
look a whole lot prettier. But the trouble was that
these paper mulberry trees took a little too well to
their new home city, and so throughout the seventies, the
trees came to dominate the landscape and really just started
crowding out all the native plants that were there pretty
(28:03):
much completely. Yeah. I was gonna say, like, I'm not
that familiar with Pakistan, but I don't really know about uh,
mulberry trees being that big a part of the landscape. Yeah,
that's right, and that they're actually listed as an invasive
species in some US states as well. So, honestly, no
matter how you slice it, seating a city with these
things was a terrible idea. And of course the residents
(28:26):
weren't expecting to deal with the pollen output of tens
of thousands of mulberry trees, so you know, city officials
effectively doomed a huge chunk of the population to life
with these seasonal allergies. In fact, the Pakistan Medical Research
Council later found that about forty five per cent of
allergic patients and Islamabad were sensitive to the trees pollen,
(28:47):
and just to give you a sense of it, the
city's record high pollen count is about four and a
half times the records of most of the U. S cities.
I mean, that sounds miserable, but you know, one thing
I'm really thing is that we've been pretty tough on
allergies today. Like we spent like twenty minutes talking about
how terrible they are and how to rearrange your whole
life to avoid them. But I came across this weird
(29:09):
connection between allergies and parasites that kind of had me
questioning whether there might be an upside to allergies. That
seems like a weird statement to say with two people
who have allergies, but do explain. Yeah, so think about this.
Earlier we mentioned that allergic reactions begin with an antibody
overreacting to something harmless. And the antibody that overreacts in
(29:30):
the case of most allergy attacks is also the same
antibody that defends our bodies from mites and also helmets. Alright, so,
just to clarify, helmets are things like flat worms and
roundworms and flukes and you know, all kinds of infectious
creatures that you definitely don't want in your blood strain.
But I think what you're saying is the same antibody
(29:51):
that fights allergens also, for some reason fights parasites. Yeah,
so that's what's so strange to me. Like, like, when
researchers looked into it, they found that most of proteins
and the things that kickoff allergies are also found in
the bodies of these parasites. And that means allergies might
just you know, be an unfortunate side effect of our
immune systems response to parasites because of those shared proteins
(30:13):
or bodies might not be able to tell the difference
between the harmless dust or pollen and an infectious parasite.
That's interesting, and I guess all told, hay fever isn't
a terrible price to pay for the ability to fight
off these parasites. But I'm curious though, Like, does that
also include foods that people are commonly allergic to? It's
a good question. As far as I could tell, it
was mostly allergens that were related to hay fever and
(30:35):
insects things, But I did read one theory about how
food allergens might tie into all of this. According to
an immunobiologist that Yale, it might be that foods of
proteins that remind the body not of parasites, but of
toxic plants and other harmful substances. Okay, see so so
just like with pollen and parasites, our bodies would recognize
some foreign proteins and then mistakenly lumps something like peanuts
(30:58):
into that same category. He IS's ay nightshade or something
which you know, it's interesting to think about, and it
doesn't make me any You're happier to have allergies, but
I guess it does less than the annoyance with them
a little bit. But I mean, if nothing else, it's
nice to know that they serve some sort of purpose.
Exactly what do you say? We switched gears and kick
off the fact off? All right, let's do it. So
(31:29):
this feels hard to believe, but I double checked it.
Apparently Clint Eastwood is allergic to horses. What I just uh,
I can't accept that. That's too ridiculous. We should just
stop now, all right. Well, here's something interesting. Apparently making
out will reduce your allergies. And this research comes from
a doctor Kamana, who oversees an allergy clinic in Osaka,
(31:54):
and in this study he took sixties subjects with hay
fever but who claimed not to kiss their partners on
a regular basis. So he took half of them, put
them in a room, piped in romantic music and forced
them to play seven minutes in heaven but for thirty minutes.
And it had an impact because the allergy sufferers who
made out showed a decreased reaction to dust mites and
(32:16):
cedar pollen than those who didn't. I love the idea
of the study where you're like collecting patients for it
or subjects for it, and and you put like, do
you have allergies? Check? Do you make out with your
partner on a regular basis? No, that's not really You're
in now go and make out. Did you know that
magnetic poetry is all thanks to allergies? Fairly? This guy
(32:40):
who invented magnetic poetry was a songwriter and he was
having writer's block, so he started cutting out lyrics from
magazines and just words and started placing them around the
table to like figure out new ways to write songs.
And his girlfriend, who had allergies at the time, sneezed
and blew everything away. So the next time he attempted,
he taped the words to these cut up refrigerator magnets,
(33:02):
and that's how this nineties trend was born. That's pretty great.
So well, it's no secret that people can be allergic
to cats. You know. Bill Clinton, for instance, was allergic
to socks. Cats can also be allergic to people. According
to that geo, cats and dogs can both react badly
to human dander, though the condition is treatable with the
(33:22):
same things that we use, and that's shots and pills. Well,
one thing that got some press recently was the lone
Star tick, which apparently gets its name because it has
a tiny Texas shaped spot of white on its back.
I don't know how how you just see a splotch
and think, oh, that's Texas time. But the reason that
God it's notoriety is that one bite apparently makes people
(33:45):
allergic to meat, and specifically red meat. Apparently there's a
sugar molecule and red meat called alpha gl for short,
and according to Wired magazine, the allergy is particularly unusual
because quote usually a mix of genes and environment nill
factor is combined to create allergies, but when it comes
to the Lone Star tike. It doesn't matter if you're
predisposed or not. Basically anyone can be made allergic by
(34:09):
a bite. Huh. Yeah. I had a cousin who's whose
son was dealing with this as well, and it was
pretty significant. But there are times when I've wondered whether
it was maybe a conspiracy cooked up by the veggie
burger manufacturer. So I'm looking into that. I'll let you
know when I find out. But all right, well here's
a cool and a French biotech company has come up
(34:29):
with a peanut allergy patch. Now it's not a cure,
but the idea is that it gives you these micro
doses of peanut protein to slowly build your tolerance so
that you know, if you accidentally touch a peanut, for example,
you'll have a less severe reaction to it. That's really encouraging.
So there's actually this new shot that could change our
fight with allergies as well. It is developed at Northwestern
(34:52):
and at the University of Michigan together, and and I
read about this in Scientific American. But the injection basically
sends the allergen into the system in this trojan horse.
It's this nanoparticle that envelopes the allergyin and uh it
goes to the liver and spleen where that casing dissolves,
and when things go okay in the body, the immune
system kind of learns from the experience and it realizes
(35:14):
the allergy isn't actually harmful. It's amazing because it's actually
worked on some nut allergies, and the team is now
experimenting with things like gluten allergies. So these are big
life changing things for people. And I guess it might
be a little while before they tackle my polar an allergy,
my mild polar an allergy. But I do love that
they're making these sort of advances, you know, thinking about
(35:35):
today between nanotechnology, thirty minute makeout sessions, you know, cramming
vassoline up your nostrils. You know, there are a lot
of ways of dealing with allergies, some more appealing than others.
I liked a lot of your facts today, me go,
but the Clint Eastwood one, I'm still not recovered from that.
I feel like you need to take today's fact off trophy. Yeah,
(35:55):
me and the allergic course I wrote in on Well,
thank you guys are listening today. As always, we love
hearing facts from you, so please send those to us.
We'd also just love to hear any funny stories you
might have about your allergy experiences. But you can always
send those facts and stories to Part Time Genius and
How Stuff Works dot com or hit us up on
Facebook or Twitter. But thanks so much for listening. Thanks
(36:31):
again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of
How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant
people who do the important things we couldn't even begin
to understand. Christa McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown
made the theme song and does the mixy mixy sound thing.
Jerry Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gay blues Yer
is our lead researcher, with support from the Research Army
including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve
(36:53):
Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,
and if you really really like what you've heard, maybe
you could leave have a good review for us. Did
we did? We forget Jason Jason, who
Guess what, mengo, what's that will? So last year click
Hold did this ridiculous article that I just found so funny,
like I do many of their articles, but the title
of it was security failure. Epipen's database of everyone who's
allergic to bees has been obtained by Bees. Here's a
line from the article. So it was this prepared statement
from the company's website, the EpiPen company website, and it says,
(00:23):
we do not know what they planned to do with it,
but we can confirm that Bees have a list of
everyone who has ever purchased an EpiPen bees heavier information.
Now we are very sorry. You know what strange is
My dad has a severe allergy to fire ants and
we only realized this when he was in his forties.
Were in Florida visiting Disney World and Cypress Gardens, and
(00:44):
this is when we were kids. He got bitten and
then rushed away. Like my mom said, his face welled
up like modern shore and pure luck, which is just
such a dated reference, but that's what she always brings
up when we talk about this. It is a pretty
dated reference, but it was also a pretty funny and
diculous scene. But back to your dad, like I assume
he was, okay, yeah, I mean my dad being my dad,
(01:05):
he just played it down the whole time. And it
actually ended up being a strangely wonderful day for us
because while my parents were at the hospital, my aunt
and uncle were with us, and we somehow got to
pet a baby white tiger like one of the people
at Cypress Gardens let us do this. So in my
memory of the tiger cup plays a much much larger
role in the day than my dad's not being there.
(01:26):
You were obviously really concerned about your dad great son,
but you know now my dad just carries his EpiPen
with him everywhere, which is a literal lifesaver. Well, I
know we both suffer from allergies at least to some degree,
and you know what, the pollen count as high as
it's been today, felt like a good time to do
a show on what allergies actually are and and think
(01:47):
about how close we are to finding a cure for
different types of allergies, and also, of course answering the
question is putting vassoline up your nose a good life
hack for stopping pollen? So let's dive in. Hekay their
(02:19):
podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson
and as always I'm joined by my good friend manga
shot Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof
glass keeping his allergies at bay by brushing his teeth,
of all things, that's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. Now, Mango,
I'll admit I thought Tristan had lost his mind yet
again when he told us that he started treating his
(02:39):
allergies with toothpaste, But in doing our reading for this week,
it turns out it's a legitimate treatment, and Mango, you
can back me up on this, right. Yeah, it's a
real thing. It's called aller dent and it basically works
the same way as typical allergy shots, where you, you know,
inject a tiny amount of an allergen as a way
to get your body used to it, except in this case,
the allergen extract is exed into your toothpaste instead of
(03:01):
loaded into a needle. And it is just such a
remarkable idea. You know, I have allergies. I often forget
to take my medication, but I don't forget to brush
my teeth, and it seems like a simple solution plus
it feels way less daunting than going in for like
an expensive shot every single week. Oh definitely. I mean
the only downside right now is that it can be
pretty tough to get your hands on the toothpaste at
(03:23):
the current moment. And and that's because even though allergy
and extracts are FDA approved, it's only approved for shots
right now. But my guess is it won't be too
long before the toothpaste will be pretty easy to access.
But you know, as we shift from one allergy season
to another, we thought it might be a good time
to take a closer look at the world of allergies.
(03:44):
That's right, So we're gonna explore some unusual ways to
keep allergies in check, as well as the science behind
what causes them and even the history of why we
get them in the first place. But why don't we
start with what allergies actually are since we tend to
throw around the term pretty loosely. Like often you'll hear
people say they're allergic to something when you know they
might have some kind of intolerance but not an actual allergy. Yeah,
(04:06):
like somebody might be lactose intolerant, but that's not the
same thing as being allergic to milk, or they might
have a sensitivity to gluten, but eating bread doesn't, you know,
make them break out in hives or anything. But let's
talk about what the actual distinction is and and first
of all, like what makes an allergy an allergy? So
the term was coined in nine six by pediatrician in Vienna,
(04:27):
and he came up with it by joining the words
for different and reaction, and the idea was basically, if
someone is allergic to pollen or whatever, they're having a
different or unusual reaction to something considered harmless. But the
thing that really defines allergies is their underlying cause. And
the reason we have such extreme reactions to these otherwise
harmless substances is because of a hypersensitive immune system. So
(04:49):
rather than targeting genuine threats like a virus, the immune
system misidentifies something safe as dangerous and in the process
our our body takes these defensive measures to try and
expel the irritant as fast as possible. That's why you
get like a runny nose or you start sneezing, because
it's trying to get the stuff out. And that's what
we associate with allergies. But if you want to get
(05:09):
a little more scientific about it, these symptoms are the
result of a chemical called histamine, and when allergenic materials
bind to antibodies and the blood, the blood responds by
releasing tons and tons of histamine. The histamine then attaches
itself to cells in the nose and sinuses. It causes
all the blood vessels to expand, and it sends the
mucus production into overdrive, which is why we take and histamines.
(05:33):
You know, It's obviously one of those terms I think
we've always heard and we've known to take these things,
but not really thought about what that actually means. So
I get the general sense of what allergies are, but
is a peanut allergy the same thing as a pollen allergy,
but just like we're reacting to different substances or what
is it exactly? Yeah, So it kind of helps to
(05:55):
know that most allergies break down into two different groups,
and the first is called allergic rhind itis or this
is hay fever. And this category includes what we call
seasonal allergies, so things like pollen, mold spores, the stuff
that crops up in the spring and summer, and it
also includes perennial allergies that bug people all here, like
dust mites, cockroaches, and pet dander, all right, So this
(06:17):
is what most people think of when they think about allergies,
like the kind of thing that makes you sneeze and
itch and feel congestion or even be lethargic, I guess exactly.
But things get more serious with the second type of allergy,
which of those brought on by food and also like
animal venom medications, even contact with materials like latex. And
(06:38):
in these cases, the body is still responding to an
ireritant by pumping out the histamines, but it's at a
completely different pace. It's doing this way way more aggressively,
so much so that when someone with an allergy eats
shellfish or it gets stung by b they just skip
that itchy I phase we know about, and it goes
straight into anaphylaxis. And that's the severe situation where your
(06:59):
air ways close up, you swell, your throat and tongue
sort of swell as well, and your blood pressure tends
to drop. All right. So the process is more or
less the same for all kinds of allergies. It's just
that some prompt more extreme reactions than others, right, And
the thing to remember is, in either case, it isn't
the allergyen that's attacking your body. It's actually your immune
(07:19):
system overreacting. And even though we understand how the process works,
we don't really know how people develop allergies in the
first place. I mean, something is causing our immune system
to lose it, but we still aren't sure what that is. Yeah,
that's true, But we do have a couple of promising
leads on this. I mean, for one thing, we know
that our genetics play a factor in whether or not
we develop allergies. Actually, I was looking at this series
(07:42):
of twins studies that examine both fraternal and identical twins,
and the results were really interesting. So, first you take
fraternal twins and when one of them has a peanut allergy,
the rate of the other having a peanut allergy as
well was actually only about seven per cent. But you
look at idea of cool twins who share the same genes,
(08:02):
both twins were allergic in sixty percent of cases. So
it's a pretty significant difference, huh. I mean, there's actually
another reason to think of genetics as the root of allergies,
which is that the tendency to have allergies is actually
something we inherit from our parents. So you know, well,
that doesn't mean that like, because your mom has a
fish allergy, you're definitely gonna have a fish allergy. It
(08:22):
just means that, you know, you have a higher chance
of developing an allergy to something. H Well, I mean,
there's obviously something there, but genetics aren't the only factor.
And who does or doesn't get allergies And another big one,
not surprisingly is the environment. After all, if you aren't
exposed to a particular allergy and there's no way to
develop an allergy to it, Like you know, take somebody
(08:44):
who lives in the desert, I mean, they're not likely
to have a pollen allergy since there isn't much plant
life and pollen to even be exposed to their Yeah,
I mean the environmental component is interesting because it's sort
of works both ways. Like, uh, the flip side is
that being exposed to common allergies can also reduce your
chances of developing an allergy to them. And the key
(09:05):
here is really being exposed an early enough age. Like
we've talked about this before, but a few recent studies
have shown that children who grew up on a farm
are less likely to develop allergies than kids who grew
up in cities. Well, and that's because the farm kids
were exposed to more allergens early on, right, That's right.
So a few years back, this science Institute in Belgium
(09:26):
found that exposure to farm dust actually helps build resistance
to dust based allergies. And this works because of a
protective protein called A twenty that's produced in the mucous
membrane of the lungs. And when kids breathe in farm dust,
their lungs produce more A twenty and this reduces their
allergic reaction to other kinds of dust. But, like I said,
(09:47):
the trick is that this kind of resistance is only
built up while the lungs are still developing. So I mean,
if you're like an adult who's allergic to dust bites,
it's a little too late to solve that problem by
going out and becoming a farmer. Now, man, I guess
I'll cross that one off the list. But you know,
it's interesting how much of an impact age has on allergies.
Like I was reading how adults tend to have fewer
(10:09):
allergies than children do, especially when it comes to food allergies,
and it's far fewer allergies actually, But according to the
Food Allergy Research and Education Organization, one in thirteen kids
in the US has at least one food allergy. But
over a quarter of those kids will outgrow the food
allergies before they even reach adulthood. And research shows that
(10:30):
the earlier a child has an allergic reaction to food,
the more likely they are to outgrow it, which is why,
you know, the consensus has actually shifted in recent years
about how soon babies should be given allergenic foods, things
like eggs or peanuts. And you know, we used to
think it was dangerous to feed infants these foods until
they were at least a year old. And this, you know,
(10:52):
hasn't been that long ago. I know, even when our
oldest child was an infant, they were telling us this.
But you know, now a bunch of studies have proven
giving babies these foods when they're four to six months
old actually reduces the risk of developing allergies by as
much as I think, like eight. And the author of
the report puts it this way, you have the potential
(11:13):
to stop something in its tracks before it develops. There's
a window of time in which the body is more
likely to tolerate a food than react to it, and
if you can educate the body during that window, you're
at a much lower likelihood of developing an allergy to
that food, which makes a lot of sense, and it
also explains why some people continue to develop allergies well
into adulthood. And I guess that's because that's the time
(11:36):
when most of us are making big life changes. You know,
you're moving somewhere new, getting a pet, perhaps living on
the edge, and trying shellfish for the first time, starting
to get wild at that time, you know. But you know,
the thing I don't get is why the world's allergies
seem to be getting worse. You know, we've been reading
a lot about this, and these food allergist at Mount
(11:56):
Sina who spent the last couple of decades tracking peanut
allergies among children. And when they started this was back
in they found that one in two hundred and fifty
American children were allergic to peanuts. Now you fast forward
to two thousand ten and that number has jumped to
one in seventies, So that rate tripled in just thirteen years.
(12:16):
And well, it's true that food allergies are often misdiagnosed.
There's been a similariz in peanut allergies in countries like Canada, Australia,
the UK. And that's not even to mention you know,
the hay fever rise and asthma's on the rise and
these these same regions. So there's definitely something going on. Yeah,
some of the specifics might be up for debate still,
(12:37):
but there's no question that allergies have become a lot
more prevalent in the last thirty years or so. I
did some reading on why that might be, and one
of the biggest contributing factors seems to be rising global temperatures.
And I didn't want to believe this, but it actually
makes sense when it was explained to me. You know,
higher temperatures lead to more plant life, which leads to
more pollen, and more pollen means more allergic reaction ends.
(13:00):
And in fact, a recent study found that the spring
pollen count has increased every year since the year two
thousand and listen to these numbers. By the year twenty
there could be twenty thousand grains of pollen per cubic
meter compared to just eight thousand grains in the year
two thousand. Yikes, that's a that's a huge difference. But
(13:20):
global warming is only counting for the rhinitis cases, right,
not to mention the more serious ones. So what's causing
an increase in in things like food allergies or or
even like bea stings. Yeah, so those keys are a
little tougher to account for, but the prevailing theory is
that they're linked to our modern hygiene practices and the
ideas that are modern sterile lifestyles don't provide enough exposure
(13:41):
to potential allergens, which in turn causes our immune systems
to get board start lashing out at all the harmless
stuff like food or cat dender or whatever else. And
while it's likely that there are other factors behind the
recent rise of allergies, the hygiene theory would explain why
we mostly see this in predominantly wealthy westerns of id
s in less developed countries. You know, if your child's
(14:03):
immune system is struggling to deal with parasites from contaminated water,
then the body isn't wasting time or resources warding off
things like pollen. So if we go by the hygiene theory,
you can more or less chalk the whole allergy epidemic
up as basically first world problems. All Right, So at
this point, researchers have spent decades looking for a cure
for allergies, and the best option is still to just
(14:25):
treat the symptoms rather than cure the actual cause. But
thankfully we've got some pretty great options now, including some
of the more outside the box approaches, and we should
talk about those. But before we get to that, let's
take a quick break. You're listening to Parts and Genius,
(14:53):
and we're talking about the best ways to track and
treat your pesky allergies. So well, one of the most
effective and more obvious options for treating allergies is also
one of the most basic, and that's plain old avoidance.
And while that's pretty straightforward when it comes to food
or latex allergies, since you know, we generally have some
saying what we eat and wear, it's not as easy
(15:15):
to avoid things like pollen. And in those cases you
have to be a little more creative and a lot
more vigilant. Yeah, when you think about pollen allergies, I mean,
you really just want to minimize your exposure as much
as you can. For example, pollen counts tend to peak
between the hours of five and ten in the morning,
so if you can avoid the outdoors during that period,
you know, you might spare yourself some of the sneezing
(15:36):
and whether obviously plays a big role as well. In
those pollen counts. You've got the warm and windier days
being the worst and the cool and rainier days being
the best in in terms of the pollen counts. But
it doesn't mean you have to stay inside on those
nicest days. And one quick tip for braving pollen heavy
weather is to dab a little bit of assolene inside
(15:56):
your nostrils, and what happens there is that, you know,
the pollen and hale just get stuck in there before
it can reach your airways, which is so weird. Like
someone actually told me to do that with key, which
is uh Indian clarified butter, and they promised it worked,
and I refuse to do it because it just sounded unbelievable.
And now I basically feel like I've got to try.
(16:18):
It's gonna be walking around with some some butter up
your nose and it's it's kind of like our our
friends Sean in college whose grandmother had the cure for
everything was just to like rub some butter on his neck.
So maybe there's something to this and we should just
try these things. Well. Another simple move is to check
the pollen forecast for your area during allergy season. And
some people don't realize this, but there's actually a National
(16:41):
Allergy Bureau and it posts the current pollen and mold
levels for different regions on its website. Yeah, so the
Weather channel does that as well, and Google even pulls
up that information automatically, like if you search for pollen
or allergy information in the area. Um, you can also
set push notifications on your phone so you will always
know when the pollen count starts to climb. I mean,
(17:02):
it's pretty amazing. Yeah, and it's definitely handy to have that,
But I mean, let's be honest, not all of us
have the option of staying inside whenever pollen is is
causing big problems, nor you know, do we have the
courage to face social situations with vasoline smeared up our noses?
And you know, so in those cases, and allergy sufferer's
best friend are the antihistamine medications that we talked about earlier,
(17:24):
and you can obviously find those at your local drug store.
Not The only problem is knowing which option to go with. Now,
the good news is that there really isn't a huge
difference between stuff like ben a drill or Zyrtec or clareton.
I mean, these are all antihistamines that work by binding
to the histamine receptors in your nose and sinuses. So
instead of histamines activating these receptors and making your nose run,
(17:48):
the antihistamines muscle them out of the way and actually
take their spots, which is interesting. But you know what,
what about the nasal sprays, Like, is one more effect
have then the other in terms of pills for sprays? Actually, yeah,
I mean those nasal sprays contain corticos steroids that ultimately
help control symptoms better than their capsule counterparts, And that's
(18:11):
because the sprays don't prevent histamines from binding to their
receptors like the pills do. Instead, they actually prevent yourself
from reacting to the allergen at all, which you know,
it means there's no chance for them to even produce
histamines in the first place. Now, the only downside to
these is that these corticosteroids take longer to become effective,
so those nasal sprays do work best, but only if
(18:33):
you start taking them a couple of weeks before the
allergy season actually hits. That way, the steroids will have
built up in your system, so they'll have an easier
time controlling that immune response when allergens do crop up.
So this is particularly fascinating to me because I am
lazy about using the spray, like I take it when
I remember, but it's good to know that you sort
(18:54):
of need to use it regularly to build up your tolerance. Yeah,
and I was exactly the same way. But now a
third way to treat allergies is also the closest thing
we have to a cure for them, and that's immunotherapy. Now,
the most common examples of this are the allergy shots
we mentioned at the top of the show, and these
work much like a vaccine would, but you know, a
(19:14):
patient is basically injected with trace amounts of whatever they're
allergic to, and gradually their body builds a tolerance to
the substance until the allergic reaction is either severely reduced
or even eliminated altogether. But of course this approach also
has its drawbacks. I mean, for one thing, the shots
have to be administered every week, and not only is
(19:35):
that time consuming, it can also be pretty expensive, and
you know, especially when you consider that this kind of
treatment can go on for five years or even longer. Yeah,
I mean that's what makes that toothfaste so exciting, right,
I mean, like, I love this idea that you might
be able to treat your allergies with tooth taste, and
that someday we'll be taking sun screen through pills instead
of having to apply it badly, Like, it's amazing all
(19:57):
these ways that we're going to be getting medicines. And
I've read a little bit about that too, in terms
of the sunscreen and pill form, and it's fascinating. But
all right, well let's go back to the toothpaste show
just for a second, because I'm still a little bit
unclear on how that works, Like how do the allergens
even make it into your bloodstream? So I was wondering
that too, like it must be less effective than a shot, right,
(20:19):
But it turns out that the mouth is actually a
perfect place to administer allergy mets, and that's because the
mucus membrane in the mouth has such a high immune
response level. It's trying to make sure that we don't
do something stupid like drink a bunch of poison, and
toothpaste isn't the only way to take advantage of this.
So for years Europeans have actually used this under the
tongue allergy drop that works the same way. The biggest
(20:41):
problem was that the drops can aggravate your throat or
stomach if you accidentally swallow them, but thankfully the toothpaste
approach avoids those side effects altogether. Well, I'm definitely pulling
for this toothpaste and it just seems like such a
hassle free treatment, and much more so than any others
we've talked about. But you know, for all the parents listening,
there might actually be a fourth treatment option available not
(21:03):
to you, but to your kids. And you know, you
can think of these as preventive options, are ones that
wouldn't require you to just pick up and move to
the farm belt. But you know, for starters. There's a
study out of the University of Alberta. So it was
a two thousand seventeen report that they put out, and
the researchers claim that having a pet in the house
could be a way to help prevent not only childhood allergies,
(21:25):
but obesity as well. And I feel so guilty now
because my kids have been asking for a dog for
such a long time and we've been slow rolling. But
they actually, they actually tipped me off and paid me
a few bucks to mention this, just to kind of
guilt you into the dog. So tell me what, like,
why is this the case? Like we're we're so used
(21:46):
to hearing about people with pet allergies that it's hard
to imagine how having one could lead to the opposite result. Well,
apparently there are two types of bacteria in particular that
have been linked to a lower risk of allergies and
even obesity and babies, and the studies showed that babies
who lived with pets had way more of both types
of these Now, incredibly, these positive results held true even
(22:08):
in households where pets had passed away before the baby
was born. So you could have just gotten a really
old dog, like while Lizzie was pregnant, and maybe that
would have solved everything. But that suggests that that health
booze from these bacteria might even extend into the womb.
So if it really comes down to just two bacteria, Like,
could we ever just get some kind of pet and
(22:28):
a pill one day? I mean, uh, you know, so
you don't have to deal with any of the dog walking,
but you get all the benefits of their dirtiness. I
love that this is your solution when you're supposed to
be the dog lover of the two of us. I mean,
I am I I'd love to have a dog, but
you know, we've got family that's allergic. I I do
think our kids biggest fear is that, like now we're
just going to end up with a fish and call
(22:50):
it dog. So so you go, so the profits good
luck to see if that that trick works. Well, here's
one we don't want to encourage, but it is interesting
to read about, and that's that kids who bite their
nails and suck their thumbs actually reduced their risk of
allergies in the future. This is research that comes out
of New Zealand and the researchers were looking at this
(23:11):
long running study on thumb sucking and nail biding behaviors
and more than a thousand kids and so the participants
were quizzed on their habits at ages five seven, nine eleven,
and then finally at thirteen and at age thirteen they
were given their first skin prick test to measure their
immune responses to different allergens. Now, according to the results
(23:33):
from this, the kids that didn't engage in thumb sucking
or nail biding had a forty nine percent chance of
developing allergies. Meanwhile, you look at the kids who either
suck their thumbs or bit their nails, they actually only
had a forty risk. And what's more, the kids who
did both actually had the lowest allergy risk of all
the participants at thirty which is interesting, but it's also
(23:57):
a pretty solid defense for the hygiene theory, right, Like,
I mean, if there's a benefit to stick in your
dirty hands in your mouth, it must have something to
do with all those germs helping to strengthen your immune system. Definitely.
But again, these aren't exactly behaviors you want your kids
to take up. So who knows how many people will
actually reap the benefits from this. But you know, if
pet and a pill ever catches on, maybe there's hope
(24:19):
for dirty fingernails and a pill too. Who knows, well,
I sure hope not, But to me it all sounds
like those terrible jelly bean flavors. Oh yeah, definitely good.
But you know that there's one way of dealing with
allergies that I want to make sure recover. But before
we do that, let's take another quick break. All right, Mango,
(24:52):
So what's this last way to avoid allergies that you
wanted people to know about. It is super simple. Don't
move to McAllen, Texas. Okay, all right, so I don't
have to become a farmer, and I shouldn't move to McAllen, Texas.
This is a good advice. But all right, so why
not McAllen, Texas? So it's just not a great place
(25:13):
if you've got hay fever. And according to the Asthma
and Allergy Foundation of America the a f A. McAllen
is the number one worst city in America for allergies.
Well we can we can forget the McAllen Tourism Bureau
advertising on part time genius now at this point, all right,
but I'm curious, So what is this based on exactly?
Is it just the pollen count? So it's actually this
(25:35):
annual ranking that the foundation does and it's based on
a few different factors. So pollen count is one of them,
but it's also things like the usage rate of allergy medications,
the um number of allergy specialists in the area, and
McAllen has showed up near the bottom of the list
for a few years now, but in two thousand eighteen
they finally scored a perfect hundred on this test. And
(25:56):
to put that in perspective, Louisville, Kentucky is in second
and they only scored an eight six eight. Holy Cow,
and that does sound pretty bad. I mean, and I
know that the South in general can be pretty tough
for allergy sufferers. I know moving to Atlanta has been
a little bit rough on you with that. But you know, honestly,
you should be thankful you're not in the allergy capital
(26:16):
of the world, and that is Islamabad, which is the
capital of Pakistan. So I'd never heard this, Like, how
bad is it there? It is horrible. I mean, the
spring pollen season is so bad that many of the
wealthier citizens just go to the countryside for a few
months just to avoid it entirely. And then those who
stay behind really trying to stay indoors as much as
(26:37):
they can. But even that is rough. It was one
reporter who was speaking to a woman who actually slept
upright in a chair throughout the allergy season because otherwise,
she explained, she would just stop being able to breathe.
That is awful. I mean, it does seem like a
little backwards though, like, like, how do you wind up
with the city that has more of a pollen count
(26:57):
than the countryside around it. Well, it actually comes back
to the city design, and it's bad design. So you
go back to the nineties sixties, Islamabad was going through
a period of enormous growth and officials started looking for
ways to add stretches of green space throughout the city
and this was really just to beautify the city. But unfortunately,
(27:18):
they fell behind on this greenery project and the city
remained pretty much treeless for the better part of a
decade or so. Then years later, the city planners were
trying to make up for this lost time and they
were looking to see the entire city with these fast
growing paper mulberry trees. So all through the late sixties
you'd have helicopters flying over is Lamabads scattering these mulberry seeds.
(27:42):
And to the planners credit, the plan actually did technically
work and these trees grew quickly. They made the city
look a whole lot prettier. But the trouble was that
these paper mulberry trees took a little too well to
their new home city, and so throughout the seventies, the
trees came to dominate the landscape and really just started
crowding out all the native plants that were there pretty
(28:03):
much completely. Yeah. I was gonna say, like, I'm not
that familiar with Pakistan, but I don't really know about uh,
mulberry trees being that big a part of the landscape. Yeah,
that's right, and that they're actually listed as an invasive
species in some US states as well. So, honestly, no
matter how you slice it, seating a city with these
things was a terrible idea. And of course the residents
(28:26):
weren't expecting to deal with the pollen output of tens
of thousands of mulberry trees, so you know, city officials
effectively doomed a huge chunk of the population to life
with these seasonal allergies. In fact, the Pakistan Medical Research
Council later found that about forty five per cent of
allergic patients and Islamabad were sensitive to the trees pollen,
(28:47):
and just to give you a sense of it, the
city's record high pollen count is about four and a
half times the records of most of the U. S cities.
I mean, that sounds miserable, but you know, one thing
I'm really thing is that we've been pretty tough on
allergies today. Like we spent like twenty minutes talking about
how terrible they are and how to rearrange your whole
life to avoid them. But I came across this weird
(29:09):
connection between allergies and parasites that kind of had me
questioning whether there might be an upside to allergies. That
seems like a weird statement to say with two people
who have allergies, but do explain. Yeah, so think about this.
Earlier we mentioned that allergic reactions begin with an antibody
overreacting to something harmless. And the antibody that overreacts in
(29:30):
the case of most allergy attacks is also the same
antibody that defends our bodies from mites and also helmets. Alright, so,
just to clarify, helmets are things like flat worms and
roundworms and flukes and you know, all kinds of infectious
creatures that you definitely don't want in your blood strain.
But I think what you're saying is the same antibody
(29:51):
that fights allergens also, for some reason fights parasites. Yeah,
so that's what's so strange to me. Like, like, when
researchers looked into it, they found that most of proteins
and the things that kickoff allergies are also found in
the bodies of these parasites. And that means allergies might
just you know, be an unfortunate side effect of our
immune systems response to parasites because of those shared proteins
(30:13):
or bodies might not be able to tell the difference
between the harmless dust or pollen and an infectious parasite.
That's interesting, and I guess all told, hay fever isn't
a terrible price to pay for the ability to fight
off these parasites. But I'm curious though, Like, does that
also include foods that people are commonly allergic to? It's
a good question. As far as I could tell, it
was mostly allergens that were related to hay fever and
(30:35):
insects things, But I did read one theory about how
food allergens might tie into all of this. According to
an immunobiologist that Yale, it might be that foods of
proteins that remind the body not of parasites, but of
toxic plants and other harmful substances. Okay, see so so
just like with pollen and parasites, our bodies would recognize
some foreign proteins and then mistakenly lumps something like peanuts
(30:58):
into that same category. He IS's ay nightshade or something
which you know, it's interesting to think about, and it
doesn't make me any You're happier to have allergies, but
I guess it does less than the annoyance with them
a little bit. But I mean, if nothing else, it's
nice to know that they serve some sort of purpose.
Exactly what do you say? We switched gears and kick
off the fact off? All right, let's do it. So
(31:29):
this feels hard to believe, but I double checked it.
Apparently Clint Eastwood is allergic to horses. What I just uh,
I can't accept that. That's too ridiculous. We should just
stop now, all right. Well, here's something interesting. Apparently making
out will reduce your allergies. And this research comes from
a doctor Kamana, who oversees an allergy clinic in Osaka,
(31:54):
and in this study he took sixties subjects with hay
fever but who claimed not to kiss their partners on
a regular basis. So he took half of them, put
them in a room, piped in romantic music and forced
them to play seven minutes in heaven but for thirty minutes.
And it had an impact because the allergy sufferers who
made out showed a decreased reaction to dust mites and
(32:16):
cedar pollen than those who didn't. I love the idea
of the study where you're like collecting patients for it
or subjects for it, and and you put like, do
you have allergies? Check? Do you make out with your
partner on a regular basis? No, that's not really You're
in now go and make out. Did you know that
magnetic poetry is all thanks to allergies? Fairly? This guy
(32:40):
who invented magnetic poetry was a songwriter and he was
having writer's block, so he started cutting out lyrics from
magazines and just words and started placing them around the
table to like figure out new ways to write songs.
And his girlfriend, who had allergies at the time, sneezed
and blew everything away. So the next time he attempted,
he taped the words to these cut up refrigerator magnets,
(33:02):
and that's how this nineties trend was born. That's pretty great.
So well, it's no secret that people can be allergic
to cats. You know. Bill Clinton, for instance, was allergic
to socks. Cats can also be allergic to people. According
to that geo, cats and dogs can both react badly
to human dander, though the condition is treatable with the
(33:22):
same things that we use, and that's shots and pills. Well,
one thing that got some press recently was the lone
Star tick, which apparently gets its name because it has
a tiny Texas shaped spot of white on its back.
I don't know how how you just see a splotch
and think, oh, that's Texas time. But the reason that
God it's notoriety is that one bite apparently makes people
(33:45):
allergic to meat, and specifically red meat. Apparently there's a
sugar molecule and red meat called alpha gl for short,
and according to Wired magazine, the allergy is particularly unusual
because quote usually a mix of genes and environment nill
factor is combined to create allergies, but when it comes
to the Lone Star tike. It doesn't matter if you're
predisposed or not. Basically anyone can be made allergic by
(34:09):
a bite. Huh. Yeah. I had a cousin who's whose
son was dealing with this as well, and it was
pretty significant. But there are times when I've wondered whether
it was maybe a conspiracy cooked up by the veggie
burger manufacturer. So I'm looking into that. I'll let you
know when I find out. But all right, well here's
a cool and a French biotech company has come up
(34:29):
with a peanut allergy patch. Now it's not a cure,
but the idea is that it gives you these micro
doses of peanut protein to slowly build your tolerance so
that you know, if you accidentally touch a peanut, for example,
you'll have a less severe reaction to it. That's really encouraging.
So there's actually this new shot that could change our
fight with allergies as well. It is developed at Northwestern
(34:52):
and at the University of Michigan together, and and I
read about this in Scientific American. But the injection basically
sends the allergen into the system in this trojan horse.
It's this nanoparticle that envelopes the allergyin and uh it
goes to the liver and spleen where that casing dissolves,
and when things go okay in the body, the immune
system kind of learns from the experience and it realizes
(35:14):
the allergy isn't actually harmful. It's amazing because it's actually
worked on some nut allergies, and the team is now
experimenting with things like gluten allergies. So these are big
life changing things for people. And I guess it might
be a little while before they tackle my polar an allergy,
my mild polar an allergy. But I do love that
they're making these sort of advances, you know, thinking about
(35:35):
today between nanotechnology, thirty minute makeout sessions, you know, cramming
vassoline up your nostrils. You know, there are a lot
of ways of dealing with allergies, some more appealing than others.
I liked a lot of your facts today, me go,
but the Clint Eastwood one, I'm still not recovered from that.
I feel like you need to take today's fact off trophy. Yeah,
(35:55):
me and the allergic course I wrote in on Well,
thank you guys are listening today. As always, we love
hearing facts from you, so please send those to us.
We'd also just love to hear any funny stories you
might have about your allergy experiences. But you can always
send those facts and stories to Part Time Genius and
How Stuff Works dot com or hit us up on
Facebook or Twitter. But thanks so much for listening. Thanks
(36:31):
again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of
How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant
people who do the important things we couldn't even begin
to understand. Christa McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown
made the theme song and does the mixy mixy sound thing.
Jerry Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gay blues Yer
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including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve
(36:53):
Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.
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