Strange Science Topic

[Frozencat]

So immunology is a field that I find highly interesting (I was originally going to be the first history major with a life sciences minor ) but reading articles seems to lead me to believe that the entire field is devoted to removing, protecting, or preventing allergic reactions whenever possible - making life easier in a general sense for those who have them.

Would anyone know of any past or present scientific endeavours to discover causality (I know what causes reactions but not what causes the body to have a reaction) and its genetic applications? Or is it even genetic?

I guess my fetish is fairly hardwired into me considering I would be semi-interested in the reverse, as I am only lucky enough to have skin itch allergies to chlorine and raw turkey...

[Quills & Wells]

From what I understand, genetics does play a role. It has been proven that if your parents have allergies you most likely will too. It is believed that if your parent is allergic to something (ex. Cedar trees) then you have a higher possibility of having that allergy.

The last statement i don't think has been "proven" yet

[Trillium]

Allergies (and other allergic diseases like asthma & eczema) have been proven to be genetically linked, but what is inherited is the potential of developing allergic diseases (called "atopy") rather than a specific allergic disease in reaction to a specific allergen. So if Mom is allergic to cats, Son could be allergic to something else, or have allergic asthma, or some other type of allergic disease. (I'm sure that it's only a coincidence [based on similar allergen exposure] that my son and I are both allergic to dogs.)

Immunology is not entirely devoted to researching and treating allergic disease, though, although from articles in the popular press one would think so. Defects in the body's immune system are not limited to the abnormal immune reaction that we call allergy; there are a whole host of auto-immune diseases, for example, like rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, lupus, Sjogren's, etc. And there are other immunological defects that give rise to diseases such as SCID and AIDS, and deficiencies in IgA and IgG. . . it's a fascinating subject.

There has been much research on determining the cause of allergic diseases. Some of the currently popular theories are the "hygiene hypothesis" and exposure to air pollution. Growing up with a dog has been shown to inhibit the development of all allergic disease; such is not the case if a child grows up with a cat. Exposure to a lot of allergen does not seem to give rise to allergic disease, while exposure to a medium dosage does. (Researchers actually caused allergy to a rare California clam in a group of people to find this out.)

Probably there's such a focus on preventing and treating allergic diseases because of their growing prevalence in industrialized nations. The latest figures I've read is that one in 5 of us have some sort of allergy.

Good luck to you in your reading and study of this field.

[Frozencat]

Thank you very much That was extremely informative as well. I have contacted allergists before but they all seem baffled by the fact that someone would want to attempt in any way to give themself allergies (or develop them in some format).

I am sure there is a scientist out there trying to prove a causality that would need an informed consent patient . Although one would always be worried that it would be of random assignment and of random reaction, so I could end up deathly allergic to something common.

Maybe I've thought too intensively on the subject.

[Trillium]

Thank you very much That was extremely informative as well. I have contacted allergists before but they all seem baffled by the fact that someone would want to attempt in any way to give themself allergies (or develop them in some format).

I am sure there is a scientist out there trying to prove a causality that would need an informed consent patient . Although one would always be worried that it would be of random assignment and of random reaction, so I could end up deathly allergic to something common.

Maybe I've thought too intensively on the subject.

If you want to be in a clinical trial, and you live in the U.S., go surf clinicaltrials.gov and search for allergy trials in your state/city. I think, though, that the vast majority of trials studying causes of allergies would be observational, meaning the trial subjects are simply asked questions about their lifestyles, etc. as opposed to being administered allergens. (I've never read of another trial like the California one where subjects were actually administered an allergen.) There are tight legal rules protecting the rights of human subjects in clinical trials.

You might also find the National institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to be of interest (http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/) as well as the sites of the two professional allergists' associations (http://aaaai.org/ and http://www.acaai.org/).

[Frozencat]

Sadly I live in Canada, but I will be keeping up to date with these clinical trials. I have done one previously and it was a great experience, so I am hopeful that one suited to my interests will come along.

Thanks again for the info, it was most likely better than any research I could do on my lonesome