Why Is The West More Effected By Food Allergies?

Two questions come to mind after reading the stats. Why is food allergy more prevalent in western countries? Why are newer generations more susceptible to food allergy? Where did we go wrong? Several theories were devised to answer these questions. Most of them propose that “modernization” or might I say “westernization” is the main culprit here.

According to the so-called Hygiene Hypothesis, a lack of early childhood exposure to infections predisposes a person to the allergic diseases by suppressing the normal development of the immune system. In simple words, exposure to certain bacteria is necessary to train our immune system.

This exposure is lost due to decreased infections in modern lifestyle and wide use of antibiotics in the developed world. This realization that these "little" microorganisms are so important for us is the most interesting advance in the modern medicine in the recent past. Some scientists refer to these bacteria as “lost friends”.

What normally happens is that bacteria and parasites present in our body (especially in the gut) increase the threshold of our immune system and establish “immune tolerance”. When there is no exposure to the bacteria, it leads to immune hypersensitivity and our immune system gets mad and attacks otherwise harmless things like food particles. This “attack” also damages the body tissues along with and can lead to severe symptoms.

Modern lifestyles provide a cleaner diet and therefore a change in the population of intestinal microorganisms. This change has also led to the loss of the friendly harmless bacteria in our guts, bacteria that are essential to the normal functioning of  the human immune system. Could we be destroying this symbiosis evolution created with excessive cleanliness? 

Extensive use of antibiotics in early life poses a threat to our allergy-protecting bacteria, especially in the gut. This in turn disturbs the normal bacterial flora in the gut and halts the natural development of our immune system. Our immature immune system shows abnormal response to the normal food particles. Use of antibiotics in the early age increases the risk of allergic diseases by 30-40 percent.

A number of studies have been done on allergic and non-allergic people. The bacterial swabs from their skin and gut showed that allergic people have far fewer types of bacteria living in their gut and skin than non-allergic people. In developing countries, people are exposed to bacterial infections at a very early age and the use of antibiotics is also limited in those regions, so their immune system matures properly. They are at a reduced risk of developing food allergies.

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Kids today are not exposed to a lot of bacteria because of widespread antibiotic use, cleaner environment and relatively “hygienic” diet. As a consequence there is an increase in rate of food allergies in kids. The newer generation seems less likely to outgrow this food allergy epidemic than their parents which is an alarming situation. Some people believe in the “let them eat dirt” notion, which is an interesting paradox as it will increase the risk of infections but certainly will halt the chances of getting food allergies.