Fear of Nuts Creating Hysteria of Epidemic Proportions.

[kherrmann3]

Not those nuts, you perv! I found this on yahoo! this morning. Aside from the title being funny, I thought this was interesting. Just read, and discuss. Talk amongst yourselves!

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008
by Lockergnome

Measures imposed to reduce exposure to nuts are often based on irrational fears of nut allergies and are becoming increasingly sensationalist, according to a doctor on bmj.com.

A peanut on the floor of a school bus leading to evacuation and decontamination for fear that it might be eaten by the 10 year old passengers, and schools declaring themselves “nut free” by banning nuts, peanut butter, homebaked goods and any foods without ingredient labels, are just some examples cited in this article.

According to Professor Nicolas Christakis from Harvard Medical School, there is no evidence that any of these extreme restrictions work better than more circumscribed policies or that they are worth the money and disruptions they create.

In the US, 150 people die each year from food allergies. This is compared to the 50 who die from bee stings, the 100 who die from lightening strikes, the 45,000 who die in motor vehicle accidents, and the 10,000 who are hospitalised for traumatic brain injury from playing sport. But these issues do not incur such extreme reactions, such as calling for an end to sport.

Christakis says that the “gross over-reaction to the magnitude of the threat” is very similar to mass psychogenic illness (MPI), previously known as epidemic hysteria.

Often seen occurring in small towns, schools and factories, these outbreaks of MPI involve healthy people in a flow of anxiety, most often triggered by a fear of contamination. Being around individuals who are anxious heightens others’ anxiety.

These extreme measures to reduce exposure to nuts are fuelling anxiety in parents, leading to more sensitisation, and creating the very epidemic they are designed to stop. A recent study has suggested that early exposure to peanuts actually reduces, rather than increases the risk of allergy.

Christakis concludes by calling for a level-headed strategy to deal with this phenomenon before it spirals out of control.

 

[NorthernAutumn]

Nuts to that.


:biggrin2:

 

[kherrmann3]

I don't understand why people keep calling peanuts "nuts". They aren't even a nut! They are a legume, if I'm not mistaken. Legume does not mean nut! lol

 

[pinksalamander]

QUICK! THERE'S A HAZELNUT TREE.. EVERYBODY RUN!

Thats so funny. I remember when I was about 7, it was Christmas day and we had peanuts on the table as snacks. I was eating some and I gave one to my 3 year old cousin. My auntie flipped, told me he was going to die and made me really scared. Surprisingly, he was fine.

Also, kinda unrelated to nuts (but related to the story posted above). My other cousin, on Christmas Day again, who was also about three at the time, was toddling around. Everyone was in the kitchen and I was in the living room. He reached up onto one of the tables and grabbed a glass of red wine by the stem, and of course it fell all over him. I picked him up quickly and took him into the kitchen to wash him and change his (conveniently white) babygro. My Uncle went crazy screaming thinking he was bleeding to death demanding I hand him over and call an ambulance. I was like, errr... its red wine.

(That same cousin also got drunk aged 4 by stealing sips of my Grandads beer the following Christmas)

Fran :hearts :brownbunny

 

[Luv-bunniz]

pinksalamander wrote:

QUICK! THERE'S A HAZELNUT TREE.. EVERYBODY RUN!

Thats so funny. I remember when I was about 7, it was Christmas day and we had peanuts on the table as snacks. I was eating some and I gave one to my 3 year old cousin. My auntie flipped, told me he was going to die and made me really scared. Surprisingly, he was fine.

Also, kinda unrelated to nuts (but related to the story posted above). My other cousin, on Christmas Day again, who was also about three at the time, was toddling around. Everyone was in the kitchen and I was in the living room. He reached up onto one of the tables and grabbed a glass of red wine by the stem, and of course it fell all over him. I picked him up quickly and took him into the kitchen to wash him and change his (conveniently white) babygro. My Uncle went crazy screaming thinking he was bleeding to death demanding I hand him over and call an ambulance. I was like, errr... its red wine.

(That same cousin also got drunk aged 4 by stealing sips of my Grandads beer the following Christmas)

Fran :hearts :brownbunny

You christmas' must be awesome

 

[kherrmann3]

Oh! How funny (in a sad sort of way)! History tends to repeat itself, eh?

I've read a few articles on this peanut business. They are finding scientific evidence that we are causing our children to be allergic to common foods. The reason? We're too clean. Antibacterial soaps, hand sanitizer, etc. has made children's immune systems weak. Their immune system tries to find things to attack to keep itself going. That's why a lot of children are allergic to peanuts, cats, dogs, dust, wheat, gluten, etc. I am not saying that everyone with allergies is contributed to being clean, but a good percent of them are.

I admit, I was a "dirty" child. I was a tomboy, always jumping into ponds to watch bullfrogs, helping my dad clean fish, always have owned pets and cleaned out their cages, etc. But guess what? I have little-to-no allergies. I have no serious allergies whatsoever. I am mildly allergic to cats (it depends on the fur/shedding type) and some bunnies bother me, too. I think the bunnies are just because of their hair and how it likes to violently fling itself into your nostrils. I probably am not really allergic to them, some just make me itch. I don't even know if I am "allergic" to timothy hay. It makes my hands get a little rash, but I have super-sensitive skin. I have strawberry blonde hair, and my skin is pretty pale. It's sensitive!

In the end, I get to eat peanuts without fear. Fear me, peanuts! Rawr!

 

[NZminilops]

kherrmann3 wrote:

Oh! How funny (in a sad sort of way)! History tends to repeat itself, eh?

I've read a few articles on this peanut business. They are finding scientific evidence that we are causing our children to be allergic to common foods. The reason? We're too clean. Antibacterial soaps, hand sanitizer, etc. has made children's immune systems weak. Their immune system tries to find things to attack to keep itself going. That's why a lot of children are allergic to peanuts, cats, dogs, dust, wheat, gluten, etc. I am not saying that everyone with allergies is contributed to being clean, but a good percent of them are.

In the end, I get to eat peanuts without fear. Fear me, peanuts! Rawr!

I concur! I don't use anything antibacterial, at all, never have and I never will. I don't know for sure but I would imagine it would kill good bacteria as well as bad, and we need good bacteria on our bodies. Everytime I go to visit my greatgrandma though I am meant to rub this horrible smelly antibacterial alcohol stuff on my hands and I never do, I'm evil . I think it's dumb though as I hug my great gran so the rest of me touches her, so whats the point in de-bacteria-ing just my hands?

I was a proper messy kid too, and I think it's healthy to be that way. Mathews' dad who is bacteria phobic always seems to suffer badly when he gets a cold or infection. He wont touch door handles, plates or cutlery that he hasn't washed himself, or even touch the handle on the milk bottle without spraying some antibacterial stuff on it. I haven't even had a cold for years, any cuts or scrapes I get heal well, I don't even like using plasters as my body knows to form a scab and heal something itself.


I laughed when I saw this thread title from the RO front page and new it was you posting it .

Can I just say, peanuts taste like EVIL FRUITS...er legumes... OF HELL, why anyone would even WANT to eat them is beyond me!


Edited for terrible typos!

 

[pinksalamander]

As my Great Grandma would say. 'You gotta eat a bit of dirt in your life. Dirt does you good'.

She was pretty senile by this time but the point still stands!

Fran :hearts :brownbunny

 

[kirst3buns]

Gotta love the wisdom of your grandparents. My grandmother said if we happened to eat dirt that it was a little extra "roughage" for our systems and chickens eat dirt all the time to aid their digestion (can you tell I grew up on a farm?). lol

Also, when we went out to pick veggies in the garden and would look for any little catepillars inevitably we'd miss some and they'd get cooked with the broccoli or whatever. Again, I remember my parents saying "that's just a bit of extra protein for ya!".

Funny, I'm not allergic to anything really, except a few medications, and that has developed rather recently.

 

[kherrmann3]

I have medicine allergies, but that's about it. Figure this one out, I am mildly allergic to liquid Vicodin, but not the pills. Odd?

And, sadly, the title is not my brain child. That was the title on yahoo! and I couldn't resist posting it lol

 

[pinksalamander]

kirst3buns wrote:

Funny, I'm not allergic to anything really, except a few medications, and that has developed rather recently.

Yeah, I wasn't exactly a 'dirty' child. I guess I'm in the middle but my Mum has never been the cleanest of people round the house if you get what I mean. Anyway, I'm not allergic to anything, I'm rarely ever ill. I've never even had chicken pox... (Plus I've never had a jab for tuberculosis and I'm still alive!!)

Fran :hearts :brownbunny

 

[JadeIcing]

I was a messy child. Mud pies, climbing trees. Taking off into the woods. I have allergies. ( I was the only girl until I was 8)Ditto for my mom and brother. I have a cousin who the smell of peanuts puts her into shock.

 

[kherrmann3]

Vaccines make my skin swell and sting and such. It gets red and feels like there's a marble under the skin. I hate vaccines! I had to get a tuberculosis test in Spring to get into my CNA class. That swelled up pretty good, too (not a positive test, but it did hurt a lot). I had chicken pox when I was young. That was fun

 

[BethM]

I remember hearing something once that the big polio epidemic in the 1900's was because people were too clean. People who were around soil a lot would gradually develop an immunity.


When I was a kid, my mom and I lived with my grandparents, and they weren't really the cleanest of people. Not really filthy, but not really *clean* either. We lived in the city, but I played outside a lot.
I discovered I was allergic to cats when I was 4, my grandma took me babysitting with her and the people had new kittens. After playing with them for awhile, my eyes swelled shut. Plus itchy eyes, throat, and sneezing. I also sometimes break out in hives if cats touch my face. I always had a dog growing up, and was fine then, but shortly after moving out I developed an allergy to dogs. I am not allergic to my bunnies, but I am to the hay.
I have *severe* allergies to all sorts of pollen, but so does my mom and her sister, so I think that might have some sort of hereditary component. Maybe not, dunno. I get asthma symptoms when the allergies are really bad.

Happily, though, I have no food allergies! My husband is allergic to bananas, melon, and citrus fruits. (They make him vomit.) I give him a hard time about that, since he was born in the Year of the Monkey, but he can't eat bananas. I eat a banana for breakfast every morning! His sister is super allergic to mangoes, she breaks out something awful and gets all puffy.

When I went to Hawaii this fall, I bought a can of mixed nuts to take on the plane with me. Ate half of it on the way there, half on the way back.

 

[twich]

We have a saying that's been in my family for generations, "You aren't really a kid until you've eaten a pound of dirt" lol. Obviously no one lets their kids eat dirt in the family, but in reality, kids who are allowed to play outside and in the mud and sand and so on will eventually eat dirt... And normally they're the healthy ones.

I was a down in the dirt kind of kid but I've actually got an over active immune system, and because of it I have alot of allergies to things like pollens, animals, medication, etc. I was diagnosed with a nut allergy just this year (which sucks after knowing how much I love the nuts I'm allergic to).. My first reaction was last August or September and my lip and face swelled up over a course of about 10 hours... I'm lucky that it's not life threatening right now, but doctors issue epi pens for food allergies because they can go from something as simple as a rash to anaphalitic shock and triggers can be something as little as only if you eat the food or, something as bad as like JadeIcing said, just the smell of it. I sort of see the point to both arguements here with the schools.. There was a highschool in Ottawa where someone had peanuts and opened a door without washing their hands and not too much later another student opened the same door and because of the nut residue on the handle, she went into shock and almost died. If there's a person with a nut allergy at the school then the measures to prevent an allergic reaction should be taken (as in sports, protective gear is normally worn to try to prevent injury) but if none of the kids have any food allergies... There shouldn't be restrictions to food... And that thing about the peanut being on the bus.. If the kid only gets a reaction through eating peanuts.. They really over did it... Even if he can touch them and react, they could have washed the bus normally and it would have been fine.

 

[BethM]

The one food allergy I'm fearful of.......When my mom (who is also allergic to bananas) was in her mid-30's she suddenly developed an allergy to cinnamon. She says she ate a whole bunch of red hots one day, then that evening the inside of her mouth felt like it was burnt, and prickly and swollen. That had never happened before, and she used to love red hots and cinnamon gum and such. Ever since then, she can't eat anything cinnamon. She can even tell when there's cinnamon in a bite of apple pie, because she gets that burning sensation and swells up all over again. It doesn't even have to be enough for her to taste. :shock:

I really love cinnamon, but I have never been a fan of cinnamon candies, so I avoid those just in case. I do try to keep my cinnamon consumption pretty moderate. I don't know if I could inherit something like that, but I find it's best not to tempt fate.

There can't be that many people around with super severe peanut allergies, I mean, just about every food package I read says it was made in a plant that also processes peanuts and tree nuts. If they can't even breathe the dust, or touch a peanut, what do they do, live in a bubble?

I don't think anyone with that severe of a peanut/tree nut allergy would survive around here, I don't know anyone willing to ban nuts anywhere.

 

[Raspberry82]

NZminilops wrote:

kherrmann3 wrote:

Oh! How funny (in a sad sort of way)! History tends to repeat itself, eh?

I've read a few articles on this peanut business. They are finding scientific evidence that we are causing our children to be allergic to common foods. The reason? We're too clean. Antibacterial soaps, hand sanitizer, etc. has made children's immune systems weak. Their immune system tries to find things to attack to keep itself going. That's why a lot of children are allergic to peanuts, cats, dogs, dust, wheat, gluten, etc. I am not saying that everyone with allergies is contributed to being clean, but a good percent of them are.

In the end, I get to eat peanuts without fear. Fear me, peanuts! Rawr!

I concur! I don't use anything antibacterial, at all, never have and I never will. I don't know for sure but I would imagine it would kill good bacteria as well as bad, and we need good bacteria on our bodies. Everytime I go to visit my greatgrandma though I am meant to rub this horrible smelly antibacterial alcohol stuff on my hands and I never do, I'm evil . I think it's dumb though as I hug my great gran so the rest of me touches her, so whats the point in de-bacteria-ing just my hands?

I was a proper messy kid too, and I think it's healthy to be that way. Mathews' dad who is bacteria phobic always seems to suffer badly when he gets a cold or infection. He wont touch door handles, plates or cutlery that he hasn't washed himself, or even touch the handle on the milk bottle without spraying some antibacterial stuff on it. I haven't even had a cold for years, any cuts or scrapes I get heal well, I don't even like using plasters as my body knows to form a scab and heal something itself.


I laughed when I saw this thread title from the RO front page and new it was you posting it .

Can I just say, peanuts taste like EVIL FRUITS...er legumes... OF HELL, why anyone would even WANT to eat them is beyond me!


Edited for terrible typos!

Totally agree! People worry too much about silly bacteria these days.. I mean salmonella, ok, yeah.. but most people have this idea that you need industrial strength cleaners and spray everything a million times. And you know what? They're breathing that cleaner right into their lungs and I bet you a million dollars, they still get sick every winter from flue/colds.

I was raised playing outside, allowed to get dirty or play in dirt, our home never had toxic cleaners only natural disinfectants and I still keep this tradition.. and you know what? I don't get colds and flu each winter. People forget that we're kept healthy thanks to zillions of healthy bacteria in our systems that are also killed by these anitbacterial solutions.

Immune system suppression with toxins does play a HUGE role in developing allergies, but also way too much stress.. emotional or physical will also play a big part. So if kids are raised in an extremely high stress family with lots of cleaning chemicals and chemical fragrances (like chemically candles, chemical cleaners, antibacterial everything, chemical air freshener) it will gaurantee their immune system will be supressed pretty often.

LOL, I love peanut butter.. but there is some truth to why people are very sensitive to peanuts. They contain a specific kind of mycotoxin.. a mold. Molds are the most common severe allergy in people. Also why so many people are allergic to pennicillin, it is made from a specific mold.

I also agree that measures should be taken out of consideration for the child with this severe kind of allergy if they are at a school. It is very hard living a life where you are severely allergic to things because yes, things are often cross-contaminated.

Even for celiacs, life can be difficult and they won't die immediately if they eat gluten, but it makes them very very sick immediately. Restaurants and food manufacturers are having to become more aware of their ingredients for their customers and I think that is a good thing.

 

[kherrmann3]

My mum developed an allergy to shrimp when she was older. Her throat closed up, and I don't remember if she had to go to the hospital or not. She had one isolated incident, then it never happened again (the people in my family are dumb enough to try some things twice lol).

Last year, Will and I took my mum out to a restaurant that we liked (BD's Mongolian BBQ), and sure enough, she broke out in hives. That was memorable, being all dressed up and such, having to run to Walgreen's because the restaurant didn't have a first aid kit with Benadryl in it, and having to rub Benadryl cream all over my mom's back in the Walgreen's bathroom. Yeah, we haven't been back there since. It's a shame, mum could go to the "allergy zone" where they cook your food separate from everyone else's.

We've figured out that her allergy tends to be triggered when she eats "uncooked" shrimp, you know, the little gray ones? Obviously, they are cooked BEFORE she eats them, but those bother her. If she buys the little pink, pre-cooked guys, it doesn't bother her. It's either that or the allergy is triggered by shrimp from a certain area. We aren't quite sure.

 

[Raspberry82]

One of the big ironies though is that "dirt" isn't really what it used to be.. now, unless you live in the country on your own plot of land, most dirt contains chemical fertilizers, gasoline and oil run off, herbacide/fungacide sprays from lawns, heavy metals, and other industrial pollutants.. so playing in dirt isn't just exposing yourself to bacteria anymore .

 

[kherrmann3]

Hooray, cancer?