15 points matco11 1 hour ago 5 comments
JumpCrisscross 53 minutes ago | parent
Entire classes of allergies are basically caused by IgE, our worm-targeting depth charges, getting bored by the lack of worms in our bodies for possibly the first time in millennia.
If we could tweak our bodies we wouldn’t want to eliminate IgE. But we’d want to have it produced only when a recognizer complex finds thar be worms.
manmal 31 minutes ago | parent
How can IgE get bored? That doesn’t sound right. Why would the body, a master of efficiency, produce IgE just for fun?
changoplatanero 25 minutes ago | parent
they are saying that the body produced to to fight parasites like worms. these were a big problem for most of evolutionary history. With modern living standards, our immune systems don't encounter many parasites so they get "bored" and over react to harmless things like food. Evolution hasn't had time to adjust to the new living standards since its only been a few generations.
adam791 21 minutes ago | parent
Hygiene hypothesis
altairprime 18 minutes ago | parent
Was this reviewed by anyone outside of their employer? The logo dead center at the top at least gives away that it’s not an academic paper, and without independent review this seems like a fancy press release in LaTeX academic clothing.