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Comment by numbers_guy | Hacker News Reader

Where does peanut allergy come from anyway? The first time I heard about it was on American TV sitcoms. Two decades later we have EPIPENs in our schools too, but in my childhood food allergies were never discussed at all. Not a single mention at all.

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Yeah same here (Europe), never heard about anyone having (pea)nut allergy, but now my own kids have it (for the record wife also doesn't have it), and not just peanuts, other nuts as well (cashew, pistachio, walnuts). But from what I've seen in Prague kindergarten lists of allergic kids, it's still quite rare, like 1-2 kids max out of 20-24 kids class. Seems gluten allergy is more common than (pea)nuts.

In my late 30s I developed a legume allergy (including peanuts). Not knowing much about child peanut allergies (we gave all of our kids peanut butter from an early age), I’ve had to adjust my own life to avoiding peanuts, soy, and so many delicious beans.

My symptoms are just gastro related, so it’s probably not the same as childhood peanut allergies, though.

Peanuts contain a unique kind of lectin, which, unlike almost all other plant lectins, does not break down with preparation (heat, mechanical, etc.). Lectins irritate the gut lining and therefore cause gastro issues for a lot of people, peanuts probably moreso than other foods.

> My symptoms are just gastro related, so it’s probably not the same as childhood peanut allergies, though.

Maybe it's food intolerance, which is distinct from food allergy? Those I'm sure can develop later in life.

Do you get a flu shot every year?

I used to, but haven’t been regular about it for several years. Is there a link between it and adult onset allergies?

It has been proposed for at least egg allergy, since the flu shot contains egg protein and there is a plausible MoA. Some of the shots also use adjuvant 65, which contains peanut oil and it's possible the same MoA applies. Your own personal risk-reward calculation applies of course

I'm not saying it isn't more prevalent now, but there were definitely kids in my elementary school (~500 kids) in the 1980s who couldn't have peanut butter. I always felt so bad for them too, because I more or less survived on the stuff.

I remember in elementary school in the 80's, we were merely talking about peanuts for some class unit, and the girl known to have an allergy to peanuts threw up in front of everyone. Poor girl.

There is a mostly ignored body of research linking at least some food allergies to food proteins in vaccines. Here is one such study https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3571073

There's probably a good reason why it's ingored...

The science is definitely mixed[1]. The proposed mechanism of action is logically sound, though, and probably worth exploring more than it is

[1]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5845772/

It's possible the mechanism is plausible, but then how do we explain the fact that in most developed countries vaccination rates have gone up, yet allergy rates have gone up only in a few? Surely there must be some other factor causing it.

How do we explain the fact that countries with the highest growth of ice cream sales, have the highest growth of sunburn cases as well?

Hard to take a huge macro view of only two factors as you are doing and draw any meaningful conclusion. Hence the need for deeper study

Probably not all countries use peanut oil as an adjuvant.

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