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The prevalence of allergy has continued to increase in the US and other westernized countries. Statistics indicate that food allergy alone in the US is as high as 19%. A recent study of insurance claims in the US for peanut allergy alone indicates an annual rise in this allergy from 1.7% to 5.2% in children aged 1 year between 2011 and 2017.

While allergy is typically viewed as a dysfunction or a disease, evolutionary biologist Margie Profet brought a disruptive perspective to our understanding of the phenomenon in 1991. 

In her essay, The Function of Allergy (1991, Profet proposed that allergy is an evolved protective response with a purpose.  This uncomfortable and potentially risky immune system response that we are all programmed to create, has a function. Allergy, she suggests, is a “last line of defense against toxic substances in the environment in the form of secondary plant compounds and venoms.” 

Consider our range of defenses against toxins: the senses of smell and sight, peeling and cooking, enzymatic destruction and elimination, methylation, and more. However, if something such as penicillin overwhelms our abilities to detoxify it, the body will create a defense that is commonly IgE antibody mediated. Once sensitized to a specific compound, this patrolling antibody will trigger a chemical cascade in response to its presence. 

This cascade results in the familiar signs of an allergic reaction: hives and itchy skin, sneezing, and coughing may be accompanied by vomiting, diarrhea and much more. These biochemical responses, Profet says, are attempts to block or eject the perceived threat – one that had previously overwhelmed our ability to remove it. 

In short, for Profet, the potential for allergic sensitization and the ability to detoxify are inversely related. 

Since 1991, of course, there has been tremendous amount of intense research into the components and chemistry of the allergic cascade. Most recently, researchers at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, have discovered a previously unknown memory B cell, MBC2. 

A lead researcher was quoted: “We found allergic people had this memory B cell against their allergen, but non-allergic people had very few, if any.”