14 DAY TRIAL // Official statistics show that the general population of the United States now features three times more people suffering from allergies to various types of nuts than it did 10 years ago. Peanut allergies are on a steep rise, for example, and they currently affect 300 percent more children than they did in 1997. For the current investigation, the researchers investigated thousands of households in 1997, 2002 and 2008, and then compared the results to derive trends, LiveScience reports. The document revealing the results was published this week.
“These results show that there is an alarming increase in peanut allergies, consistent with a general, although less dramatic, rise in food allergies among children in studies reported by the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]. The data underscore the need for more study of these dangerous allergies,” explains Mount Sinai School of Medicine Jaffe Food Allergy Institute pediatrics professor Dr Scorr Sicherer. He was also the lead researcher of the study, which is detailed in the May 12 issue of the esteemed scientific Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The experts covered a number of 13,534 individuals, all of them living in 5,300 households.
When the first survey was conducted in 1997, scientists discovered that 0.4 percent of all children in the study suffered from peanut allergies. Eleven years later, that percentage jumped to 1.4, a significant rise by any standards. When looking at the combined prevalence of tree nut + peanut allergies, the researchers found that it had increased from 0.6 to 2.1 percent. The group admits that these results may not be fully representative for the general population. They say that the investigation was conducted via phone, which means that households of lower socioeconomic status may have been excluded.
Though nobody knows for sure the cause of allergies, some experts hypothesize that a weakened and bored immune system may be the root cause. Modern society, especially in developed nations, places a lot of emphasis on living in a squeaky-clean environment, where disinfectants and strong drugs are used to fight off any potential source of infection. While this may seem good at first, it's actually not. The lack of pathogens makes the immune system linger, until it finally begins attacking harmless proteins, such as those found in milk, eggs, peanuts and other foods.