[ELI5] Why can we gain resistances to medicine, alcohol, poison, etc. but not so much for allergies or pollutants?
In: 1276
Same reason why you don’t gain resistance to bullets by being slowly exposed to bullets over a long period of time. Take a pollutant like asbestos, it causes cancer because the tiny fibers get stuck in the mesothelium and damage the surrounding cells. You can’t immunize to that, it is a structural issue. The more exposure to asbestos (or lead or UV radiation or whatever) you have the worse it is for you – period and end of story. The body is a giant chemistry experiment held up by a lego set, you can adjust the chemistry (so medicines, poisons etc) gently but if you tear apart the legos you are just left with a pile of junk.
Poisons, toxins, and allergens are a fundamentally different thing. They don’t damage, as such, the structure of the body as much as they interrupt biological processes or similar. The body *can* adjust to that over time.
Latest Answers