為什么我的過敏會隨著年齡的增長而改變?

為什么我的過敏會隨著年齡的增長而改變?

If we were to sum up allergies with an emoji, it’d be a shrug. We know so little about them, and yet tens of millions of Americans experience allergies of some kind or another throughout their lives.

如果我們用一個表情符號來總結(jié)過敏，那就是聳肩。我們對它們知之甚少，但仍有成千上萬的人在他們的一生中經(jīng)歷著這樣或那樣的過敏。

But there is some positive news for allergy sufferers everywhere.

但對各地的過敏患者來說，有一些好消息。

The only good thing about getting older is that?,? in many cases, allergies are less prevalent, says Clifford Bassett, medical director of Allergy & Asthma Care of NY and an allergy specialist at New York University. Changes inside and outside our bodies as we age affect the way we react to potential irritants from ragweed to crab to dogs. Why? Well, that's a little more complicated, and there's more than one possible reason that your allergy status just switched.

“變老的唯一好處是，在很多情況下，過敏不那么普遍了。”紐約過敏與哮喘護理中心的醫(yī)學(xué)主任、紐約大學(xué)(New York University)過敏癥專家克利福德·巴塞特(Clifford Bassett)說。隨著年齡的增長，我們體內(nèi)外的變化會影響我們對豚草，螃蟹到狗等潛在刺激物的反應(yīng)方式。為什么?這就有點復(fù)雜了，你的過敏狀況改變的原因可能不止一個。

You outgrew it

你長大了

Around 60 to 80 percent of kids with milk and egg allergies outgrow them by age 16. Only 20 percent of kids with peanut allergies do so, and only 14 percent of those allergic to tree nuts. Just 4 or 5 percent outgrow a shellfish allergy.

大約60%到80%對牛奶和雞蛋過敏的孩子到16歲就會痊愈。對花生過敏的孩子中只有20%會痊愈，而對樹堅果過敏的孩子中只有14%會痊愈。只有4%或5%的人不再對貝類過敏。

Why? Unfortunately, the answer is that we mostly have no idea. We know some general associations—the earlier a child has an adverse reaction to food, the more like they are to outgrow it—but scientists don't yet understand why some kids age out of their reactions and others don't. We do know that early exposure to small amounts of food allergens, especially peanuts, helps prevent allergies in the first place. But we have no idea how to actively reverse them once they happen. If you get allergies as a kid, you just have to wait and see if your tolerances change in the future.

為什么?不幸的是，答案是我們大多不知道。我們知道一些普遍的關(guān)聯(lián)——孩子對食物的不良反應(yīng)越早，他們長大后就越有可能克服——但是科學(xué)家們還不明白為什么有些孩子對食物的不良反應(yīng)早于其他孩子。我們知道，早期接觸少量食物過敏原，尤其是花生，有助于預(yù)防過敏。但我們不知道一旦它們發(fā)生，如何積極地逆轉(zhuǎn)它們。如果你小時候有過敏癥，你只需要等待，看看你的耐受性在未來是否會改變。

One of the few things researchers have observed is that there does seem to be a time limit to ridding yourself of childhood allergies—if you haven’t outgrown an allergy by your teens, you’re likely to have it for life.

研究人員觀察到的為數(shù)不多的事情之一是，擺脫兒童過敏似乎是有時間限制的——如果你在十幾歲時還沒有擺脫過敏，你很可能會終生過敏。

You're moving to new places

你搬到了新的地方

Allergies, especially the seasonal variety, can change a lot over a lifetime, but it might not have anything to do with your body. Every place you live has its own set of allergens, so moving from one town to the next will likely change your allergies too. Teens moving out of their parents' houses or adults changing jobs may experience a sudden surge of allergies, or sweet, sneeze-less relief.

過敏，尤其是季節(jié)性過敏，在人的一生中會發(fā)生很多變化，但它可能與你的身體沒有任何關(guān)系。你住的每個地方都有自己的過敏原，所以從一個城鎮(zhèn)搬到另一個城鎮(zhèn)可能也會改變你的過敏反應(yīng)。從父母家里搬出來的青少年或換工作的成年人可能會突然出現(xiàn)過敏癥狀，或出現(xiàn)愉快的、打噴嚏少的癥狀。

It also takes time to become allergic to things. You may not feel a reaction to ragweed during your first summer in Tennessee, but have a full-blown allergy the next. That’s because you became sensitized one year and reacted the next. Similarly, you may visit someone with a dog and seem fine, but sneeze constantly the next time you hang out at their home.

對事物過敏也需要時間。在田納西州的第一個夏天，你可能對豚草沒有任何反應(yīng)，但在接下來的一個夏天，你就會完全過敏。那是因為你一年變得敏感，第二年就反應(yīng)了。同樣的，你可能會帶著狗去拜訪某人，看起來很好，但是下次你在他們家玩的時候，你可能會不停的打噴嚏。

You're just allergy-prone

你只是容易過敏

Some people are just unlucky. Again, we have no idea why, but clearly a subset of humans have immune systems primed to identify allergens as potential dangers, giving those poor folks a whole host of allergies while others go sneeze-free. People with one allergy are far more likely to develop another, and as far as we can tell there's no way to avoid that unless you prevent exposure altogether. And since most of us don't want to live in bubbles, that means allergy-prone folks are likely to suffer the sniffles their whole lives.

有些人就是不走運。同樣，我們也不知道為什么，但很明顯，一部分人的免疫系統(tǒng)已經(jīng)準備好識別潛在危險的過敏原，當(dāng)其他人都不打噴嚏的時候，這些人卻對很多東西過敏。有一種過敏的人更有可能發(fā)展另一種過敏，據(jù)我們所知，除非你完全避免接觸，否則無法避免。因為我們大多數(shù)人都不想生活在泡泡里，這就意味著容易過敏的人可能一生都要忍受鼻塞的折磨。

This is distinct, however, from atopy. Atopy is a genetic predisposition to acquiring allergies that essentially means that nearly everything you come in contact with allergen-wise will become a full-blown allergy. Getting a dog? You’ll be allergic soon. Moving house? Enjoy the new outdoor allergies. Atopic people are also more likely to have eczema and asthma. Corticosteroids can sometimes help, as can allergy shots, but it’s still often a lifelong affliction.

然而，這與特異反應(yīng)是不同的。特異反應(yīng)性是一種遺傳易感性，本質(zhì)上意味著幾乎所有你接觸到的過敏原都會變成全面過敏。養(yǎng)狗?您很快就會過敏。搬家?享受新的戶外過敏。特應(yīng)癥患者更容易得濕疹和哮喘。皮質(zhì)類固醇有時會有幫助，過敏針也會有幫助，但它仍然是一種終生的折磨。

Your body is changing

你的身體在變化

The link between hormones and allergies haven't been well studied, but some small studies and anecdotal evidence suggest that your immune system can shift a bit in response to hormonal changes. Like nearly everything hormone-related, this affects people with menstrual cycles the most. "In women, the effect of hormones?,? such as estrogen?,? may lead to ?a ?worsening of their asthma during different? times of the menstrual cycle," explains Bassett. Puberty, pregnancy, and menopause are also commonly times of allergic change—at least anecdotally, since few studies on the subject exist in the literature. Asthma symptoms definitely change during these shifts in hormonal balance, and female bodies experience more autoimmune diseases and immune responses generally, which seems to indicate that female sex hormones have a significant influence on the immune system.

激素和過敏之間的聯(lián)系還沒有得到很好的研究，但一些小型研究和軼事證據(jù)表明，你的免疫系統(tǒng)可能會對激素的變化做出一些改變。就像幾乎所有與荷爾蒙有關(guān)的東西一樣，月經(jīng)周期的人受到的影響最大。“在女性中，激素的作用，比如雌激素，可能會導(dǎo)致她們在月經(jīng)周期的不同時期哮喘的惡化。”Bassett解釋說。青春期、懷孕和更年期也是過敏改變的常見時期——至少在軼事中是這樣，因為文獻中很少有關(guān)于這方面的研究。在這些激素平衡的變化過程中，哮喘的癥狀肯定會發(fā)生改變，女性身體普遍會經(jīng)歷更多的自身免疫性疾病和免疫反應(yīng)，這似乎表明女性性激素對免疫系統(tǒng)有顯著的影響。

Bassett also notes that factors like weight gain and obesity can affect your immune system, leading to less well controlled asthma and other allergy symptoms over time. Older adults also tend to have a drop off in the kind of antibodies that instigate allergic responses, which means they may lose their reaction to a food or pollen that they used to react to powerfully. But simultaneously, lots of seniors seem to lose tolerance to foods like shellfish, even if they’d previously been able to eat crab every single day.

巴塞特還指出，體重增加和肥胖等因素可能會影響您的免疫系統(tǒng)，導(dǎo)致長期控制的哮喘和其他過敏癥狀的緩解。老年人也容易引起過敏反應(yīng)的抗體種類下降，這意味著他們可能會失去對食物或花粉的反應(yīng)，而這些食物或花粉通常會對其產(chǎn)生強烈的反應(yīng)。但與此同時，即使他們以前每天都能吃螃蟹，許多老年人似乎對諸如貝類的食物也失去了抵抗力。