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