Applying Lessons from the Immune System to our Societal Immune System

Ever wondered why allergies seem to be on the rise? How about the intriguing link between the industrial revolution and our own immune responses?

Theresa MacPhail is an Associate Professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology, a medical anthropologist, and author of several books. Her latest is called Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World.

Theresa and Greg discuss the history of allergy research, the evolution of anaphylaxis, and the astounding revelations from her book, Allergic. Theresa talks with Greg about food labeling laws and the spike in pollen counts due to climate change. She also provides fascinating perspectives on how exposure to new pollutants, changing diets, and the advent of antibiotics have potentially disrupted our immune system's natural functioning. They dive into the importance of early investment in understanding conditions like asthma, food allergies, and eczema, alongside the potential dangers of overusing antibiotics. They also discuss what smarter societal immune responses would look like in preparation for future pandemics. 

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Episode Quotes:

The Importance of early adrenaline intervention in anaphylaxis

13:59: What adrenaline does is it stops that histamine process. So the earlier you get a shot of adrenaline, the better your survival rates, which a lot of people don't know. It takes only 30 minutes for somebody to go from perfectly fine to dead on arrival at the hospital if you don't intervene in some way. And they have a serious anaphylactic response. So time is of the essence, and doing everything you possibly can, which is something I've been talking a lot about when I'm talking about the book because that's something that's easy for people to know and can make a big difference just in the interim while we're trying to figure out the larger problem of can we help our immune systems adjust to this modern world that we're living in, that clearly our immune systems are not thrilled about.

Debunking the germ theory

47:20: We take it for granted that everything's bad—bacteria and viruses are bad. And it turns out that not really; some of those bacteria and some of those viruses are actually helpful, and we need them to function appropriately.

On training our immune system

28:38: Our immune systems need this training by age three. So, before around age three, our immune systems get set in their ways. And before that, they're pretty malleable, so they can be exposed to tiny amounts of things and learn to cope with it fairly well. But then, if you get massive changes after that, which is why you move from one coast to the other, through your immune system, because it was trained on the stuff that was around you when you were growing up. And then, if you transport yourself to a new area thousands of miles away, your body has to, in essence, decide about new things with a mature immune system that isn't as flexible.

Can we develop an allergy later in life?

30:347: The orthodoxy of immunology was that you couldn't develop an allergy later in life. And that has been turned on its head. So if you look at most of the modern research, there is an adult-onset food allergy. There just is. There are adult-onset, other types, and forms of allergy. And what you always had genetically was the predisposition.

Show Links:

Recommended Resources:

• Anaphylaxis
• Histamine
• Fertile Crescent Region
• Venomous Animals
• Alpha-gal Allergy
• Atopy
• Adult Onset Allergies
• IGE Antibody

Guest Profile:

• Faculty Profile at Stevens Institute of Technology
• Speaker’s Profile on Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau
• Theresa MacPhail's Website
• Theresa MacPhail on LinkedIn
• Theresa MacPhail  on Twitter

Her Work:

• Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World
• The Viral Network: A Pathography of the H1N1 Influenza Pandemic
• The Eye of the Virus
• Google Scholar Page
• Articles on Noema
• Articles on The Guardian