Just a few months ago, you were happily munching on shrimp without a problem. In fact, you'd been eating and enjoying shellfish your entire life. So why is it suddenly making you sick?
Believe it or not, you can develop food allergies at any point in life. Your immune system changes as you age, and sometimes that means it begins to label foods you've long tolerated as potential threats. Once that happens, every exposure triggers a negative reaction, making your body do everything it can to reject it. There is a silver lining to it all, though, and we'll break it all down here.
Your Immune System Can Change
Contrary to what you might think, your immune system isn't static—it doesn't stay the same from adolescence to adulthood. In fact, it changes and evolves as you age, a process known as immunosenescence. This means your immunity deteriorates slowly throughout the years, eventually making you less likely to respond well to vaccinations and medications, and more susceptible to infections and diseases.
Because your immune system can change, the foods you've enjoyed perfectly fine throughout your childhood could suddenly shift your body's response to them. Your system may suddenly mistake shrimp—something you've eaten your entire life—for a dangerous intruder. After you experience an initial reaction, that trigger will automatically provoke that response by your immune system every time your body encounters it. You may occasionally see early warning signs, such as vomiting or itchy, watery eyes, but these symptoms are often dismissed as something else before the allergy grows and mounts.
Most people tend to think that allergies only arise in childhood and, if you've gone years without having a single allergy, you're in the clear. But this is a myth. You can develop an allergy at any age, at any time. As long as your immune system has the ability to change, it can suddenly label something harmless as something harmful.
Genetics and Environment Can Play a Role
Women are more likely to develop allergies later in adulthood than men, specifically between the ages of 18 and menopause. Researchers believe that our hormones play a significant role in why this happens. Estrogen, for example, can greatly influence immune activity and affect histamine production. This may be why food allergies arise in certain life stages, such as during pregnancy or menopause.
The environment plays a role, too. Researchers have found that microbial exposures linked to a rural lifestyle may protect against the development of food allergies. In contrast, growing up in a highly sanitized urban environment may therefore limit the body's exposure to a wider variety of bacteria, which might influence how the immune system responds. However, it remains unclear why some people develop allergies, whether in childhood or later in life, while others do not.
Don't Self-Diagnose
While it's important to be aware of potential warning signs that may arise when your immune system responds negatively to a trigger, you should avoid self-diagnosing. You might be able to try resolving environmental or seasonal triggers at home, such as using a steroid-based nasal spray or over-the-counter antihistamines, but for anything food-related, it's best to talk to your doctor. After all, food allergies can sometimes be extremely severe, and it's not safe to resolve them on your own.
If there's one silver lining, it's that allergies can sometimes disappear later in life, too. Children who develop a peanut allergy, for example, may find that they gain tolerance in adulthood; research suggests that roughly 20% of children eventually outgrow it. Perhaps there's a brighter side to it all: if our immune systems can evolve as we age, it's possible that our responses to certain triggers can also quiet over time.
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