Why do allergies exist, and what evolutionary purpose, if any, do they serve?
In: Biology
Allergies are mistakes by our immune system. it mistakenly recognizes a harmless substance as dangerous and overreacts in an attempt to destroy it, causing collateral harm or discomfort to the body in the process.
We don’t really understand a lot of how allergies form or what determines which we acquire, though there does seem to be some common cases ingrained into us, like the urushiol from poison ivy, that most humans have an allergy to. We know less about why, say, shellfish or peanut allergies show up and why they differ in different populations. Its also theorized as parasites that normally suppress the immune system are becoming rarer and we are becoming “cleaner” that the immune system isn’t used to it and is looking for boogeymen where there are none.
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