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In Reply to: Cat cluster posted by LWR on March 19, 2007 at 07:30:09:
but I regard that pic as the most engaging I have seen for some time...Many thanks!...
Follow Ups:
Wow, there's a basket full of allergies.
I (and no doubt the bulk of the medical establishment) regard "an allergy" as a genuinely seriously threatening reaction of an individual to a particular source... People both can and do die from such conditions...I may be considered provocative by such comments, but I regard the widespread claims of "allergies" as likely to be self-indulgent and delusional attempts by inadequate individuals to claim attention for themselves by being accepted as the "victims" of a much more serious condition that that which they (may, or may not!) suffer...
How many times do you hear of a person who has obviously suffered from a mild cold claiming that they have "had 'flu"?... Those who HAVE had influenza - a genuinely life-threatening condition - have probably been bed-bound for several days!!...
IMO cultures in which such collective values are "norms" are likely to be as weak in the mind as they apparently are in the body...
In contrast to the days before penicillin, I take the view that society - and the individuals in it - have gone self-indulgently "soft" to the point where one may ask whether evolution may not simply eventually decide that we were not FIT to continue as a race...
I am sorry if I may have unsettled some by the strength of my response, but as you will probably have guessed your comments have pressed one of the few buttons where my natural easy-going temperament tends to lose out to more "Old Testament" instincts and perceptions...
Bill.
An allergy is a malfunction of the immune system where the body reacts to something that might otherwise be harmless, like pollen, cats, mold, etc. It doesn't have to be life threatening to require treatment. A stuffed up nose or a persistent itchy scaly rash can interfere with normal life. When I was a teenager, my hands looked like raw hamburger. Asthma, which is sometimes but not always life threatening, is another symptom of an allergy. A large percentage of the population is allergic to something. Many many people only discover allergies when they move from one country to another or one part of a big country to another. Allergists, btw, are physicians who are frst certified as internists or pediatricians before they enter into training in allergy and immunology, a two year program in the US.
________
"Occasionally we list eccentrically, all sense of balance gone."
Your comment is of course perfectly accurate, in much the same way that someone could technically claim that they "were ill", whether they were suffering from the mildest of colds or whether their life remaining could be counted in minutes...As I hoped that I had made clear (but apparently not clear enough!), my distaste was aimed at self-absorbed folk with very minor adverse reactions who may claim that they "suffered from allergies" to try to leach some self-importance from the obvious consideration that allergies can have very severe reactions** indeed...
** When a relative was studying at Loughborough University, a student (and promising athlete) in the same year ate a "Coronation Chicken" sandwich on campus.. The unadvertised nuts present in this sandwich speedily sent this student into a fatal anaphylactic shock...
You may appreciate my distain when I hear of folk using the same term to "highlight" conditions which may have some superficial inconvenience or irritation, but would not - unless perhaps the individuals concerned were "drama queens" by nature - seriously affect their quality of life...
As to whether "a large percentage of the population is allergic to something", I am tempted to ask whether - if indeed this might be the case - this may be a relatively recent phenomena, or whether our parents and grandparents simply got on with their lives, regarding any ailments they might have suffered that were of minor inconvenience as being of obviously minor importance... In direct contrast to today's society, I certainly heard no frequent reference to "allergies" when I was growing up!...
Bill.
Inability to sleep at night, painful rash, asthma. By large portion, I don't know the numbers, but I was thinking probably a smaller percentage than that expression connotes to you and maybe most others. But my point was that people can grow up and live in one locale, say Los Angeles, and discover their allergies by moving to Fresno. (Or, as is very common, Japan to Los Angeles.) I don't recall ever hearing about people who claim to have allergies and seek treatment for trivial symptoms or maybe none because they think it's fashionable to be allergic to something.
________
"Occasionally we list eccentrically, all sense of balance gone."
Of course there is a potentially wide range of afflictions involved, and with the vast majority certainly justifying some form of treatment... I certainly do not deny the existence of such maladies as an inability to sleep at night, a painful rash, asthma, etc., and if these were the terms used to describe them then I would both obviously have felt no need to comment adversely and would feel an appropriate sympathy for those who may suffer such conditions...Previous generations have included very large numbers of folk moving from their own neighbourhoods to other distant locations simply from being involved in two World Wars, etc. but I do not recall hearing about any reports of wholesale "sensitivities" being triggered for the troops involved, so why such characteristics sould apparently be of a much greater recent significance for a modern civilian population is obviously an open question... Certain elements involved in modern diet helping to provide a trigger for such conditions, perhaps?....
Have a good week...
Bill.
Well Bill, I do try my best to rise above it all. We have two cats at home and although I threaten to banish them to the gardening shed, they make themselves quite at home in the living room, and have for the past ten years.I did get a mild chuckle over your "delusional attempts by inadequate individuals" castigating remark, and upon reading it, knew that I had indeed hit some sort of "hot button".
Interesting that what I thought was an inconsequential remark could inspire your heartfelt response. Thanks for that!
I do agree that some people are sick merely to call attention to themselves, and there seems the need to attach a more serious label to runs-of-the-mill ailments. But I hope you are not insinuating that all allergies lie in the head's of the sufferers. I think there's enough medical evidence to support an actual physical event.
- http://www.bio.davidson.edu/courses/Immunology/Students/spring2000/lamar/mfirp.htm (Open in New Window)
Perhaps the following comments might clarify my perspective:-“ I hope you are not insinuating that all allergies lie in the heads of the sufferers.”...
Certainly not, as I hope that I had clearly stressed that folk can and do die from genuine allergies!...
“I think there's enough medical evidence to support an actual physical event.”...
It’s exactly how “an actual physical event” would be interpreted by some that was my particular reservation... A genuine allergy is self-evidently of vital importance to each affected individual, and may require very positive prevention measures to ensure that fatalities do not result... Any (essentially inconsequential) mild adverse reaction, however, would remain just that!...
Bill.
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