HenryBHough
Diamond Member
More allergic people than back then?
On the one hand I'm sure that more people are becoming aware that it's an allergy that's causing them problems. Not that many years ago the those people might have been thought of as just picky or perhaps possessed of an over-active imagination.
But I have to wonder if some of the allergies are of genetic origin.
If that's the case are we seeing more people with genuine allergies because we've become aware of them and have found ways to deal with them?
An extreme example, a deadly allergy to certain sea foods like shrimp? Wasn't that many years ago when a person would discover that allergy by eating some shrimp and dying. Person I traveled with once ate a single "chip" in an Asian restaurant and almost immediately fell off the chair! Shrimp in the chip. Fortunately the owner of the place recognized it (the guy didn't know he had an allergy) and got paramedics on it quick enough that he survived. But if it's genetic - would it be passed on to children?
The question, then, is whether our ability recognize allergies and do stuff to prevent them from killing us or getting effective treatment, is allowing people who otherwise would have died to reproduce.
Is our own medical knowledge creating a population that is dangerously fragile? If so, could Eugenics raise its ugly head again? Should it?
On the one hand I'm sure that more people are becoming aware that it's an allergy that's causing them problems. Not that many years ago the those people might have been thought of as just picky or perhaps possessed of an over-active imagination.
But I have to wonder if some of the allergies are of genetic origin.
If that's the case are we seeing more people with genuine allergies because we've become aware of them and have found ways to deal with them?
An extreme example, a deadly allergy to certain sea foods like shrimp? Wasn't that many years ago when a person would discover that allergy by eating some shrimp and dying. Person I traveled with once ate a single "chip" in an Asian restaurant and almost immediately fell off the chair! Shrimp in the chip. Fortunately the owner of the place recognized it (the guy didn't know he had an allergy) and got paramedics on it quick enough that he survived. But if it's genetic - would it be passed on to children?
The question, then, is whether our ability recognize allergies and do stuff to prevent them from killing us or getting effective treatment, is allowing people who otherwise would have died to reproduce.
Is our own medical knowledge creating a population that is dangerously fragile? If so, could Eugenics raise its ugly head again? Should it?
