What do you believe is the culprit to the rise in food allergies and asthma over

1. 58

   Teisha Hostetterposted 12 years ago

   What do you believe is the culprit to the rise in food allergies and asthma over the last 20 years?

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2. 59

   calpol25posted 12 years ago

   I believe pollution is to blame  from pesticides  polluting our food, skin, clothing to more cars than ever before being on the road and the fumes from them all causing those problems.

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3. 60

   MickSposted 12 years ago

   All the chemicals stuffed in foods.
   People wanting to be the centre of attention so they claim to be alergic to, whatever, then they  get loads om sympathy. Rather like people who claim to have influenza, but it's just a bad cold.

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4. 0

   Gusserposted 12 years ago

   Hybred seeds used for growing food that is not natural. Example is the corn crop in the US is only a filler, it's nutritional value is so low even 3rd world countries don't want it.

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5. 85

   LauraGTposted 12 years ago

   Great question. This is something that continues to stump researchers, scientists, and public health officials.  No one seems to know, but here are some of the things I think may contribute:
   
   (1) Environmental factors, some of which have already been mentioned. These also likely include changes in air quality due to toxic chemicals in our environments, including our heavy reliance on plastics, and heavy use of commercial cleaning supplies.
   
   (2) Exposure issues. I'd have to do more research on this one, but I think the basic idea is that we're not exposing kids to the right things to train their bodies to deal with a range of potential allergens. It probably starts during pregnancy when many women, especially American women, limit their diets, and continues into our hyper-vigilant germ-free environment. Recent recent has suggested that a little dirt is good for these little ones!
   
   (3) Overdiagnosis.  I think this is a key factor that not a lot of people talk about. I know from personal experience that it's really hard to stomach the idea of giving your child food that might make them sick (I've seen my child swell up in hives and start having problems breathing), but I think people rely way too heavily on skin/blood tests (which have a huge rate of false positives) to determine their child's allergies, rather than their clinical reactions.  I also think probably a lot or allergies are really "sensitivities" and probably come and go.
   
   I guess I have opinions on this!

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6. 0

   Catzgendronposted 12 years ago

   All the preservatives, chemicals and dyes that are used to preserve food

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7. 71

   BlissfulWriterposted 12 years ago

   Allergies and asthma are autoimmune conditions where the body's immune system is attacking part of its own body.  It is incorrectly discerning what is foreign and what is self. 
   
   No one really knows for sure what is the cause in the rise.  There are several theories which I have written about here ...
   http://blissfulwriter.hubpages.com/hub/ … n-the-Rise
   
   Personally, I think it is due to the pesticides and environment chemicals in our environment.

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8. 96

   Daughter Of Maatposted 12 years ago

   All the chemicals, preservatives, pesticides, insecticides, fertilizers and other crap we use to grow our food. Not to mention all the antibiotics and hormones that are used to grow the animals for the meat supply, and produce the milk. Then on top of all that, the medical community treats disease with a "pill for every il." There's a pill for every symptom. They don't treat the cause of the disease. Vaccines are given to newborn babies before their immune systems have had a chance to adapt to the pathogens in their environment. All the sugar, and unnatural sweetners we use, all the oils, fats, and other additives we put in the food to keep it "fresh," it's all killing us.

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