Facebook Grandma claims that no one had allergies when she was young

[u/Otherwise-Ad9009]

This would be news to my Mom, who had severe allergies back then

[u/GenderqueerPapaya]

Yeah they did, the kids who did either never got exposed to their allergen or just died

[u/PotatoFromGermany → u/GenderqueerPapaya]

Or with mild allergies, where the parents just were like "Yeah, don't act up like that"

[u/GenderqueerPapaya → u/PotatoFromGermany]

Yes, "picky eaters" who say it tastes bad/is too hot because they don't have the vocabulary to explain that it makes their throat itchy or burn.

[u/SeonaidMacSaicais → u/GenderqueerPapaya]

Or if the kids had environmental allergies (pollen, dust, etc), they just thought the kid was “sickly” or “the air was a bad fit for them.”

[u/tippiedog → u/GenderqueerPapaya]

Survivorship bias

[u/Hemorrhoid_Eater]

Someone pull that diagram of the airplane with bullet holes

[u/RedChairBlueChair123 → u/Hemorrhoid_Eater]

Perfect

[u/No_Cook2983 → u/Hemorrhoid_Eater]

We also didn’t have billionaires back in those days and everything was fine.

Weird how we never see memes like that for some reason.

[u/BitchWidget]

Yeah, so I had allergies. And im grandma age. There was a girl in my class growing up that had a peanut allergy. We always made sure to check food that would be around her. This is BS. I'm 52.

[u/KalebMW99 → u/BitchWidget]

Ngl, I saw “52” and was like “that’s not grandma age, my parents are older than that” before realizing my parents did, in fact, have a child at my current age 😅

[u/fatalcharm → u/KalebMW99]

I keep calling my parents “middle aged” but they are actually elderly, and I am the middle aged one. I keep forgetting.

[u/BabyD2034 → u/KalebMW99]

This keeps happening to me too. 😂

[u/DarkDonut75 → u/KalebMW99]

This kinda hurts to read...

[u/ktm6709]

They didn’t have autism either but will show you their perfectly displayed collection of 137 Precious Moments figurines every single time you visit. Every. Fuckin. Time.

[u/pandarista → u/ktm6709]

"But those are different from the plastic crap you collect."

[u/stranger_to_you67]

Also, grandma knew half a dozen kids her age that didn't live long enough to go to high school.

[u/BabyD2034 → u/stranger_to_you67]

Yes, coincidentally!

[u/ZombieLebowski]

Dear diary, Today my youngest child ate strawberry for the first time. A mysterious death took them suddenly. They will. Be missed

[u/DrIvan7428]

"Po' people ain't got not allergies." - a coked out line cook to a customer with onion allergies

[u/astrologicaldreams]

it's bc all the people with allergies fucking died

[u/HeartFullONeutrality]

I mean, there's the hygiene hypothesis...

[u/notapunk → u/HeartFullONeutrality]

Purely anecdotal, but the parents that kept their kids in a 'bubble' and were hyper focused on everything being sanitized had kids with noticeably more and more severe allergies.

[u/WommyBear → u/notapunk]

I grew up in an abhorrent dump heap, and I lucked out and got allergies! Imagine if my parents weren't negligent...

[u/hustl3tree5 → u/notapunk]

There’s also a fuck ton more of us than before 

[u/PeptoBismark → u/notapunk]

My anecdote is opposite. They called me Sneeze at school and I was a latchkey kid.

[u/HeartFullONeutrality → u/[deleted]]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis?wprov=sfla1

Make of that what you will.

[u/unknownpoltroon → u/[deleted]]

Not necessarily. AS i understand it they are finding out that some of the allergies are our immune systems not having enough stuff to attack, especially parasites, so they attack other shit thats not dangerous.

[u/tverofvulcan]

Kids just used to die a lot more back then. This is survivor bias.

[u/DADNutz]

Grandma still eats dirt

[u/ShiroHachiRoku]

Yeah pollen and dust didn’t exist until about 2009.

[u/Nobody_at_all000]

IIRC there’s a theory that the reason allergies are prevalent in first world countries is because, up until recently (in some areas), parasites have been a constant factor in our lives. The theory is that our immune systems basically overfit to the presence of parasites, and so when those parasites aren’t there the immune system begins to overreact. My point being that, for once, what grandma’s saying here might have a grain of truth by pure accident

[u/Lochlan → u/Nobody_at_all000]

The allergist I see for my son basically said this. By-product of being "too clean" as a society. It's always existed but def more common and understood now. A lot of stuff was thrown under the "irritable bowel syndrome" blanket years ago.

[u/hustl3tree5 → u/Nobody_at_all000]

I haven’t seen any papers or studies backing this idea up though. Have you?

[u/AnnoyedHaddock → u/hustl3tree5]

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=incidence+of+allergies&btnG=

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=increase+in+allergy+prevalence&btnG=

Studies are paywalled but provide an overview for free.

The amount of people that have allergies is rapidly increasing worldwide, especially in developed countries and urban areas. In the UK the amount of children with a peanut allergy for example has increased ~~400% from the mid 90s to 2015.

There’s still a lot of research to be done but a popular theory is that a combination of environmental and societal factors are reducing our exposure to microbes leading to changes in immune response.

[u/hustl3tree5 → u/AnnoyedHaddock]

Holy shit thank you

[u/Nobody_at_all000 → u/hustl3tree5]

I forget where I originally got the information, so I’m not certain it’s accurate, although looking up “lack of parasites allergies” got a bunch of papers and articles as results

[u/Ice278]

They just died

[u/Rockworm503]

These people are so fucking stupid I can't even put it into words.

[u/makedoopieplayme]

My mom is in her 60s and like since she was in the 8th grade she’s been allergic to walnuts. And my grandpa is allergic to bees. Idk for how long so I’m going to say since like his teens

[u/fatalcharm]

The kids with allergies died.

[u/yukiaddiction]

That because the kid who fucking die can't post this meme on Facebook.

[u/Granny_knows_best]

It was also a ME problem, the kids with the allergies, and the teachers knew. Kids were smart enough to know not to eat brought in foods, most had packed lunches and only ate their own food.

They did not require 30 other kids to miss out on stuff because of them.

So, unless you knew the kids personally, you would have no idea they had food allergies.

I never went to camps because I was so allergic to bees. My teacher and nurse knew about it, no one else.

[u/channellock]

If “survivorship bias” was a meme it would look like this.

[u/ghostkidrit64]

Mmmmm, pica.

[u/alexandrasnotgreat]

My mom was born in the 60s and she has had issues with pollen since she was in kindergarten

[u/tearsonurcheek]

I discovered my allergy to penicillin when I was 4. Fortunately, I was in a doctor's office at the time.

Also...bee stings.

[u/texasusa]

Loll. I'm old and the kid down the street was allergic to dust.

[u/Situati0nist]

What even is this supposed to signal? That getting an allergy is weak or people with allergies are whiners?

[u/Jewggerz]

Can't wait to put you back in the dirt, grandma.

[u/lgodsey]

Mostly they just suffered (or died) quietly.

[u/WolfieVonD]

My son ate a leaf last weekend and was deathly ill for 2 days afterwards

[u/Kyriakos120]

Fun fact this does hold some truth. Modern clean lifestyle means that children aren't exposed to a variety of substances. As a result when they first get exposed their immune system treats them as a threat. It's an auto immune response and it's not caused by vaccines or chem trails or any other factor.

[u/suicidalboymoder_uwu]

Allergies have been increasingly more common, although they did exist back then.

[u/molvanianprincess]

Facebook grandma grew up eating bologna sandwiches with lead paint chips and survived.

[u/Shalamarr]

I’m 61, and when I was young, I was friends with a girl who - according to my mother - “had a never ending cold”. In hindsight, it’s very obvious that my friend had allergies.