No Allergies Down South?

[MMiz]

Since I've moved to North Carolina I noticed that out of the 150 students I teach, only one or two is allergic to medicine or food.

This can't be right. Back in Michigan I'd usually have one or two kids per class. I'd rarely have a patient without some sort of allergy. These kids haven't even heard of nut/chocolate/latex allergies, which seem so common back home.

What's up? Is it that these "rural" kids aren't being diagnosed? Are they just not allergic?

 

[gradygirl]

It's cause we have better genes down here...

No, not really, I dunno. Heck, my aunt's allergic to almost everything, my sister's allergic to the -cillins, and my dad's allergic to many different anesthesias, so I'm not sure it's a "Southern thing."

That's pretty interesting, though.

 

[Chimpie]

Let me add this about myself: Born in CT, first seven years in VA, two in WI, and another fifteen in IN. I had really bad asthma. There were times where I would be sick with the flu for weeks. Every winter was horrible. Even as an young adult I had minor breathing problems no matter what the season was.

Since moving to Florida in 2001 most of my allergies have gone away. I've only had to get an inhaler once. On a day to day basis I feel better being down south than I did living up north.

 

[MedicPrincess]

See Matt, those big 3 auto makers ARE EVIL. All those plants up there in Michigan really are causing the people there to drop like flies. I lived 1 mile from the GM plant on Saginaw in Lansing and I would swear on whatever I needed to (if it got me a portion of that bagazillgion dollar lawsuit) that my health suffered. Good thing they are all going bankrupt, shutting down, laying off their employees. B)

But seriously...I haven't noticed that here.

I do find something interesting about you though...

out of the 150 students I teach

Here you call them students....

I'd rarely have a patient without

Here their patients....

These kids haven't even heard

Here, kids again...

So question there Mr. History Teacher. Do you look at all your students at patients?? Are you just waiting for one of them to pull some jackass style stunt so you can fling off your bow tie, rip open your shirt revealing a big yellow "E", strap your trauma shears to your pants and rush off to the resuce while saying an a creepily deep voice "NEVER FEAR!! MR EMT IS HEEEERRRREE!!!!!" (can someone give me a music sound effect????)

 

[MMiz]

LOL. I meant a distinction between patients and students. It was more of an "and" statement. I had lots of students and EMS patients with allergies.

Here in North Carolina all I have in my room is a little bag with a pair of latex gloves and bandaids.

 

[wolfwyndd]

Since I've moved to North Carolina I noticed that out of the 150 students I teach, only one or two is allergic to medicine or food.
<snip>
What's up? Is it that these "rural" kids aren't being diagnosed? Are they just not allergic?

I was born and raised in Maryland. Western and central. Back east, it was very, very common for me to see several people with alergies to everything from food to medicines. Out here in Ohio, I've only encountered a handful of people with alergies. My personal, completely UNSCIENTIFIC opinion, I'd have to say that living in rural communities expose people to more things early and they develop an immunity to it where people in urban settings do not and therefore when they are finally exposed to it later in life the become allergic to it.

In short, most rural communities don't 'baby' their kids. They let them go outside and eat dirt as youngsters and therefore become immune to most things that urbanites aren't exposed too.

Once again, this is annecdotal observations, that's all, so take it for what it's worth.

 

[fm_emt]

In short, most rural communities don't 'baby' their kids. They let them go outside and eat dirt as youngsters and therefore become immune to most things that urbanites aren't exposed too.

Yup. Even though I grew up in California, I spent a lot of time on farmland in the middle of the state. I did plenty of stupid things to myself but luckily made it to adulthood. ;-)

Only thing I'm fairly allergic to is shellfish. Odd because I rarely ever ate the stuff and was rarely around it. Iodine doesn't bug me, but if I consume lobster or crab, I'll get nasty sick and have the ol' throat swelling going on. Been many many years since i've touched the stuff.

 

[wolfwyndd]

Only thing I'm fairly allergic to is shellfish. Odd because I rarely ever ate the stuff and was rarely around it. Iodine doesn't bug me, but if I consume lobster or crab, I'll get nasty sick and have the ol' throat swelling going on. Been many many years since i've touched the stuff.

**laugh** You know, it's funny you should mention shellfish. I too, am alergic to shellfish. Ironically I used to eat crabs all the time growing up. Gee, go figure, living in MD, crab capital of the world. I never had any problem with shellfish until after I went into the Army, spent two years in Ft. Knox and then came home. I blame whatever vaccinations I got.

 

[fm_emt]

**laugh** You know, it's funny you should mention shellfish. I too, am alergic to shellfish. Ironically I used to eat crabs all the time growing up. Gee, go figure, living in MD, crab capital of the world. I never had any problem with shellfish until after I went into the Army, spent two years in Ft. Knox and then came home. I blame whatever vaccinations I got.

Both my mother and my older sister were the same way. They never had problems with it until adulthood.

To make things worse for me, I lived in Japan for 6 years. Imagine spending 6 years in Japan trying to avoid seafood. Actually it was pretty easy, and I grew to love ramen, yakisoba, and Japanese beer.

 

[Jon]

I've heard that there are a lot of allergies in the heavy industrial areas on the east cost. I would assume that more rural areas have fewer issues.

 

[ffemt8978]

I've heard that there are a lot of allergies in the heavy industrial areas on the east cost. I would assume that more rural areas have fewer issues.

That would be an interesting study if someone ever did it. What is the per capita allergy distribution across the country? Do the presence of industrial chemicals in the environment increase the potential for people to develop allergies?

I know that there is a larger percentage of people in the LA area that have come down with asthma, so there might be something to this.

 

[Guardian]

there are plenty of studies indicating a clear correlation between industrial pollution and asthma, as far as other allergies, I'm not sure...

 

[gradygirl]

In short, most rural communities don't 'baby' their kids. They let them go outside and eat dirt as youngsters and therefore become immune to most things that urbanites aren't exposed too.

I think you're on to something. Take my elementary school class, way back when; me and my best friends were always outside, hiking through the creeks, playing outside, getting down and dirty and exposed to who knows what. The more girly girls (who always looked down on us girls getting dirty) would simply play on the swings and the jungle gym.

In high school, my friends and I were nice and healthy. The girly girls all had asthma, were allergic to this that and the other, and were generally never well. (Not sure the booze and other crap they took helped much either.)

(Then again, those of us who were always outside also got as used to Atlanta smog as you can get, the girlies never liked to be outside, so they didn't get the exposure.)

Hahahaha, and as my medical anthropology professor once told our class "Everyone should eat dirt. Might as well expose yourself to whatever you can while your young and can benefit from it."

 

[Guardian]

I will say that most of my seasonal allergies (Allergic Rhinitis) seem to disappear while I'm in the city. It's because of reduced pollen.