[kapildev]

I think (and there are studies to back this too) that the more you eschew an allergen the more violent your reaction against it would be. I am from a third-world country and I know no-one from my country that has allergies related to foods like peanuts, sesame or gluten. The only other explanations for this would be: a) These allergies occur so rarely that I haven't heard from the minority of the people. b) Or, the people who had this allergies have already died without diagnosis. c) Or, people have these allergy but choose to hide them for fear of social shame. d) Or, people don't get medical checkup that allows the discovery of these allergies.

But I think the case that people being accustomed to the allergens due to forceful conditions is the best explanation for this.

[ClumsyPilot]

> I am from a third-world country and I know no-one from my country that has allergies related to foods like peanuts, sesame or gluten.

B is quite likely, I am from a non-firstworld world country, and back there you hardly ever see people in wheelchairs, blind people, people with disalities.

When I first got to EU, I saw so many people in wheelchairs, I thought something is wrong. There are more people with disabilities in europe?

Well, turns out people with disabilites in back home live sad and short lives. There is literally zero infrastructure for them - entry to every apartment block has stairs befpre the elvator (90% of people live in apartment blocks)

The curbs don't turn into ramps near crossings, they just stay vertical.

Our apartment block came with a ramp, and the residents knocked it down because it looked ugly.

Eu uses special tiling to indicate to the blind where is an edge of the pedesteian path, where is a crossing, etc. In Russia this does not exist. When the city bought this special tiling, the workers didn't know what it was, so they made random patterns out of it.

The traffic lights do not make a sound when its green, if there are roadworks and a giant hole in the ground, no-one puts a yellow fence around it. A missing manhole cover attracks no attention and zero lawsuits.

Its not just the government, here is zero awareness, and disabled people don't leave the house, no-one gives a fuck.

If you live in the capital, things are slingthly better, but for 90% of the countru thats the reality.

[kapildev]

But I see tons of disabled people here. I agree that my country does not have enough disability infrastructure, but that hasn't stopped me from noticing disabled people. Not only that, we have lots of LGBT people even though people are more against them than in any western countries. I also notice lots of mentally-ill person (ranging from ADHD and depression to full-lunatic). People here socially boycott even depressed people but that hasn't stopped people from coming out as depressed. Hence, that led me to believe that only forced-habituation is the explanation.

[viraptor]

> accustomed to the allergens due to forceful conditions is the best explanation for this.

While desensitization works https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desensitization_(medicine) you can't really just force expose someone and hope for the best.

It's a bit correlated to developed countries, but not completely https://waojournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1939-4...

I'd propose a mix of everything but also: e) People don't call things allergies unless they know it's that. I said for decades that I can't eat spinach or I'll have diarrhoea, but learned later that also classifies as an allergy. f) More developed countries have more difference in available cuisines. For example I've not seen a shellfish until I moved out of home, so wouldn't know if I'm allergic to them. g) (probably lots of other factors)

[wardedVibe]

My dude, sesame allergies are higher in the middle east, where sesame is a very common ingredient [0]. There is something happening with development that leads to immune system fuckery, but it's definitely more complicated than simple exposure.

[0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame_allergy

[cryptonector]

What is the state of research into this?

[zug_zug]

Those aren't the only explanations, there are dozens of other possible explanations, all worth investigating. And it's not just allergies, there's been an unexplained spike in multiple autoimmune conditions [see google scholar].

The hygiene hypothesis for one.

[culi]

There was a big "medical reversal" around this where a very large seemingly well-conducted study led to doctors advising patients to avoid their allergens. Later studies failed to replicate this result however and doctors have reversed course as evidence has built up that avoiding the allergen can indeed worsen it over time

However, I don't really think this is all relevant. Allergen immunotherapy is not as simple as just exposing yourself to the allergen and requires medical oversight. Even if someone is trying to work through this process without a medical professional, they still have a right to know which foods do and don't contain this allergen that could still kill them in large amounts

[pwnmonkey]

Do you happen to have a link to the new study?

[kayodelycaon]

My vote is all of these, with B/C/D being primary.

A: Sterile environments don’t properly prepare the immune system.

B/C/D: People with severe allergies and disabilities aren’t accepted as part of society. Often there is no support for them other than what their family can provide.

The sad fact is many people view medical problems as character flaws. If you were strong, you wouldn’t be sick.

So people die, hide, or never realize their problems for what they are. My grandmother had food allergies her entire life. Never told anyone. She just didn’t eat things that made her sick. Despite being a nurse her entire life, she would say she didn’t have food allergies.

[greenthrow]

> and there are studies to back this too

I have been online for about 30 years. This is the first time I am going to say:

Citation needed.

[blamestross]

> But I think the case that people being accustomed to the allergens due to forceful conditions is the best explanation for this.

The dead don't show up to be counted.