Did people have allergies in the past?

[clarrisakale]

I know this may sound like a stupid question but I've been idly wondering after seeing how common allergies seem to be these days, and research hasn't revealed much.

I'm thinking like in the Medieval Period. Were some people allergic to milk or eggs for example? Would it just be the case that lots were allergic, like today, but severe sufferers would have died and the rest would have just had to put up with it?

Also things like hay fever, would some farmers or farmer's children have had it? Or would it have been rare because they spent so much time outside and so their immune systems could cope with it?

here's the sort of thing that happened back then:

when I was a child, my mother said my little all the time barely more than throat clearing cough was a nervous habit and I was chastised. It also seemed that every cold 'settled in my lungs' and I coughed more, harder, and for days longer than anyone in the house who seemed to have that same cold at the same time. Running and stress made me breathless too but I thought that was normal, doesn't everybody get breathless or have their breathing go funny in those situations? I never even thought to look into it, this was just how I was.

in 2015 I was 50 years old, recently moved to the UK from the US and coughing up a storm when I took my son into the doctor for much more minor cold symptoms. I coughed so much and so hard the NHS doctor questioned why I wasn't the patient! I gave her pretty much the explanation above, this was normal for me. She asked if I had asthma and I said I wasn't even sure what asthma symptoms were. She gave me some sort of inhaler right away, and made me come back the next week for a proper exam. Hello, I've had asthma all my life evidently.

I still struggle to remember to use my inhalers instead of just coughing and being a bit breathless like normal. On the other hand, carrying my inhaler means that things like walking or even running for exercise are no longer things I never get any better at. I can follow a program like couch to 5K and actually make progress. I've started 3 times and never finished, but it's not due to frustration from lack of progress, just lack of commitment.

and there were the children sent to the mountains or seaside for a 'change of air'
very likely many of them hay fever sufferers

As a child my egg and nut allergy was apparently me being ‘fussy’. I’d obviously subconsciously figured out what I could and couldn’t eat and avoided them at all cost but my ill-informed parents thought that a child who turned down birthday cake was just being difficult/attention seeking etc.

As a teenager the allergy ramped up a notch from feeling sick and itchy to swollen lips and vomiting, they finally took me to the doctor who diagnosed me.

This was only in the ‘80’s so I expect mild allergies were dismissed further back too.

Of course they did.

Plus C.F and coeliac. Would have fallen under Failure to Thrive

I was a 90s child and "fussy". I am anaphylactic to all.legumes and allergic to all.nuts.

I grew up in a rural area and never had hay fever. I got it really badly the first summer/spring that I was in a city. Must be something to do with the heat and pollution combined. I don’t get it now that I live in the countryside again.

I would have died as a sickly child or would have been said to have weak lungs.

The wisest and most validating thing a doctor ever said to me was, while I was coughing horrendously and he had listened to my lungs 'you do know you can be having an asthma attack while your lungs are clear?' I hadn't known.

My mother told me that asthma was all in my head. She didn't want me using inhalers as they were a prop. I have nearly died a few times.

My father now is nearing 70 and he is constantly coughing an asthma type cough. I don't bother mentioning it to him as he sees it as a weakness and not something he'd have.

In short, I was early 90's as in 1990 and the ignorance was astounding around asthma and allergies. I was allergic to very many animals, the symptoms being cough, sneezing, swollen eyes, tears running from eyes, runny nose and swelling on arms hands wherever had touched the allergen - it was only when my mother saw my arms swell up after holding a cat that she believed I was allergic (or indeed believed in allergies). I would have been about 18.

We had a brilliant GP, accustomed to suspicion about allergies etc. who made sure I was prescribed inhalers. I also had frequent chest infections and he did his best.

In this day and age, my parents would have been accused of neglect.

I know my father's cough as I've had it so often. But what can you do when he won't listen?

Of course they did! And despite some claims, allergies and asthma existed in the 1960s as well. My cousin and brother, both born in 1954, were asthmatic. My cousin died during an asthma attack when he was 10. I had allergies to strawberries and cherries ('grew out of' the strawberry one at around 14. Not sure about the cherry one as I hate the taste anyway). Eczema is an allergy and was very common among my schoolmates in the 60s.

My mother had learned the word psychosomatic and decided that I was 'putting on' my cough when having an asthma attack.

Her sister had also decided that her dd had become aggressive as a result of inhalers.....

What can you do with that level of idiocy?

Not only are we more aware now of certain allergies and allergy related conditions we're still learning.

I became vegetarian for ethical reasons 30 years ago.

All my childhood I'd had a "dodgy tummy" and was prone to heartburn, diarrhoea, trapped wind, very long lasting and painful hiccups.

After turning veggie much of those symptoms vastly improved if not disappeared altogether.

However, at the time vegetarianism wasn't as prevalent or well catered for as now and certainly in restaurants/cafes it was not uncommon for supposedly veggie food not to be.

I got caught out a few times with dishes containing gelatine or meat stock, I came to this discovery after a few times of it happening and each time I'd ended up with a really awful stomach upset. Fish and chicken weren't a problem but red meat most definitely was!

I've noticed it since when I've been lax about checking products when they've done the "new recipe" nonsense.

About 7/8 years after I noted this issue personally it was in the news about red meat being bad for the bowel generally. My family and I weren't at all surprised.

From discussions with other veggies and gastro specialists I genuinely believe a fair number of people are allergic/intolerant to red meat.

After it was in the news about the link to bowel cancer etc my parents also quit red meat - my dad had very similar issues to myself and again found things improved a lot when he stopped eating red meat.

My brother and sister aren't similarly affected but my sister is allergic to fish so can understand from that perspective (though for her it's full blown hives, sweating etc with the slightest contact! She definitely wouldn't have lived in days gone by).

Similar to pps I never liked meat anyway I found it really hard to chew and pretty tasteless, but I was designated "fussy".

When I went veggie and suddenly turned into someone who happily cleared their plate and would have seconds and generally was eating more and enjoying eating my mum voiced regret at not letting me do it when I was younger as I wanted to. I'd always been a very slim person and "sickly" (combination of other conditions inc asthma, eczema, hayfever, frequent tonsillitis, then later endo and associated anaemia, migraines etc)

One oddity was my mum insisted I keep an eye on iron levels and what actually happened was they improved! I've not been anaemic once since turning veggie but had a few bouts prior to turning veggie.

What makes me most angry though is that my parents had 2 kids in the house with asthma and yet continued to smoke heavily in the house and even worse in the car!

I'm not sure about anaphylaxis, and how that was worded, but it must be somewhere

It wasn't very long ago that you weren't meant to give kids under 3 nuts 'in case they choked' but it was actually children having allergic reactions not choking.

My father's younger brother died in the late 1920's on his death certificate it cites 'asthma' .

A maternal cousin (one of many ) diagnosed with asthma in the late 50s, a very 'sickly' child, still here today.

My closest friend, same age as me, was diagnosed with asthma in the 1060's and has always had inhalers - still does - but I have never known her, as an adult, be poorly with it - never more than a bit wheezy - which is very much about saying there was awareness then even without it being life threatening.
So - greater awareness
generally better treatment
more allergies due to excessive cleanliness in some cases

My grandmother (would be 101 now) was allergic to strawberries.

We have a lot of allergies on that side of the family. All on the “enough to make us ill and miserable but not enough to kill us” level. Which is presumably why we lived to procreate.

I’ve got a daughter with quite a few allergies and I also love searching through newspaper archives so I looked up mentions of allergic reactions in the past. The thing is, it’s nearly always referred to as “nettle rash” (in papers from say 1910s to 1950s) - rather than hives or allergic/anaphylactic reactions. There’s advice for people/kids who suffer “nettle rash” for much the same things as today - milk, eggs, strawberries, fish, etc.

DS had a few food allergies/ intolerances in infancy. As he weaned back up the food laddee, my digestive system deteriorated. It always had been tempermental and prone to anti-social behaviour. There is now a list of foods that I restrict or avoid, and my system is much better.

So many of my relatives have had "IBS" or just ropey digestive systems. I suspect that there have been a lot more intolerances through the family. We've also maintained a static height with each generation, falling shorter against increasing average heights which may mean our nutrition has not been optimal for our needs and maximum growth potential.

A lack of awareness and mis-attributing the causes of poor health definitely occured. The environment was simpler so less triggers. My intolerance to prawns is definitely a modern, first world problem to someone who isn't within 50 miles of the sea Going way back to a pre-industrial society, poor people mainly lived on vegetables with some dairy, eggs and coarsly ground grains. There would have been a lot less triggers. Plants would have been a varied mix of native species, no sprawling mass monoculture such as rapeseed so hayfever probably wasn't so previlent, plus less air pollution mixed in. (Shame about the cholera from contaminated water)

This has just made me remember of a girl in my class at primary school (93/94). She was severely allergic to all nuts and wore a medical bracelet advising of this.

The school was never a “nut free zone” and we used to eat our packed lunch in class. She used to go and sit in the furthest corner in the class and then get told off for not eating at the tables even when she used to say she can’t be around nuts. The response was always a roll of the eyes coupled with some dismissive reply.

Seems so reckless when looking back.

My grandad (and I'm mid 40's to an almost 40 years when she had me mum) used to say that you should never leave the table if you feel like you are starting to choke because the mayor's wife did that at a banquet and she was found dead in the toilets. Now to me.... that sounds more like an ananphylatic reaction than a immediate stuck in the airways choking...

Coeliac disease- can't remember the full history, but it was first diagnosed after WWII when children who hadn't had bread for months in Occupied countries were given bread again and became ill.

Coeliac disease was first named and described in the 2nd century, though the first full description was in 1888. The link to wheat was made in the blockade of Amsterdam where other children were losing weight, but the coeliac children actually improved their health and weight when there was no bread.

My dad born in 37 had loads of allergies and psoriasis. My dh late 50s has oral allergies including tree nuts. I have always had hayfever and plaster . My ds 23 inherited both but dd has none.
MIL also was allergic to a few things including penicillin

falcon5 I think your grandad was correct. I read an article written by a medic a while back explaining that many people, when choking in a restaurant initially feel embarrassed and take themselves off to the bathroom. He was warning people not to.

This is just the same as mental health problems and neuro divergences. People have always had them in similar frequency to population, they just weren't diagonised or treated as easily/commonly.

Pharoh Menes supposedly died from a bee sting, almost certainly an allergic reaction.