←back to thread

178 points JumpCrisscross | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0.419s | source
Show context
tokai ◴[] No.45648300[source]
Peanut allergies is one of those things I have only seen in American pop culture and media. Like anxious kids breathing in a brown paper bag.

I know people have peanut allergies all over the world. But the significance of the allergy is definitely different in the US than most other places imo.

replies(4): >>45648358 #>>45648553 #>>45650707 #>>45651367 #
canucker2016 ◴[] No.45651367[source]
from https://www.preventallergies.org/blog/why-are-peanut-allergi...

  In the U.S., the rate of childhood peanut allergies more than tripled between 1997 and 2008. 

  ...

  In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a (now-outdated) recommendation in 2000, which directed parents to avoid feeding baby peanuts until they reached the age of three, especially if a baby was at high risk for a peanut allergy.

  But when these recommendations to delay feeding peanut were introduced, there was no study to support these recommendations. Rather, they were just based on physicians' guesses.

  As Dr. Spergel explains, "Back then, we gave people really bad advice. We told people to avoid food allergens... But there was never any evidence for this. It was just based on a few physicians’ best guess. There's never been any study that ever proved that food avoidance worked. "

  Today, we know that this approach to delay peanut introduction actually increases food allergy risk, and that delayed introduction was a major factor that led to the sharp increase in peanut allergies.


insert your own pithy remark about "science"...
replies(1): >>45652060 #
1. mrguyorama ◴[] No.45652060[source]
Gotta love how absolutely zero science was done yet you still somehow blame it.

Doctors are not scientists

replies(1): >>45652972 #
2. 2muchcoffeeman ◴[] No.45652972[source]
Diagnosing patients is basically coming up with a hypothesis, doing a test, check if it matches your hypothesis. Repeat if necessary.

What’s missing seems to be a way to aggregate that data and spot patterns.