allergy

Pollen counts are rising and more of us are experiencing hay fever symptoms than ever before. From airborne allergens to the food on our plates or the chemicals and plants that touch our skin, around 40% of the global population has some form of allergic disease. By 2030, today’s guest reveals, 50% of us will be affected.

Professor Theresa MacPhail is a medical anthropologist and writer, who made it her life’s work to understand more about allergy after her father died following a bee sting. Her book Allergic: How Our Immune System Reacts To A Changing World, is a detailed, enlightening look at the history of allergies and their growth in line with the industrial revolution.

Why are allergies on the rise? Why is it that 200 years ago allergies barely existed, yet today they are in our pets and farm animals? We talk about what actually happens to cause the release of histamine - which is responsible for many of our allergic symptoms. Theresa also covers the main historical theories as to the cause of allergies from the ‘hygiene hypothesis’ to the ‘farmhouse effect’ and the ‘old friends theory’.

What we do know is that allergies occur in the interaction between humans and our environment. Our environment has changed so much over the past 200 years and our immune systems simply cannot keep up. Theresa explains the body’s three main barriers to infection and allergy – our skin, respiratory system and gut. When these barriers are damaged, they become more porous and can let unwanted molecules into our bodies – causing infection, inflammation, or allergy. And what’s damaging them is things like air pollution, diesel fumes, chemicals, antibiotics, to name just a few.

We cover the practical steps we can take to mitigate allergies but there are much wider societal issues that need addressing as well. Theresa explains that we are part of a bigger ecosystem - our bodies are continually making decisions on what they can tolerate and what they can’t. We can try our best to build up our own barriers to tolerate more of the modern environment but the uncomfortable truth is that we collectively have a lot more to do to protect each other and the natural world.

This is a deep dive into a very important topic. My hope is that anyone suffering from allergies will feel seen, and anyone lucky enough not to, will gain more empathy and understanding. I hope you enjoy listening.

*Please note that this conversation refers to studies on mice.

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Dr. Gül Dölen is an associate professor of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a pioneer and world leader of psychedelics research. Her laboratory has discovered a novel mechanism that could account for the broad range of therapeutic applications that psychedelics are currently being tested for. Her lab has discovered a novel critical period for social reward learning and shown that this critical period can be reopened with psychedelic drugs, such as MDMA, LSD, psilocybin, ketamine, and ibogaine. Building on this discovery, she has formulated the hypothesis that psychedelics may be the long sought “master key” for unlocking critical periods across the brain. To test this hypothesis, she has initiated a nationwide collaborative effort to determine whether psychedelics reopen critical periods for ocular dominance plasticity, bird song learning, anatomical plasticity in the barrel cortex, serotonergic neuronal regeneration, dendritic spinogenesis, and motor learning.

Importantly, understanding psychedelics through this framework dramatically expands the scope of disorders (including autism, stroke, and allergies) that might benefit from adjunct therapy with psychedelics, an approach she has dubbed the PHATHOM project (Psychedelic Healing: Adjunct Therapy Harnessing Opened Malleability). 

Dr. Dölen earned her MD, PhD at Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she carried out seminal work on critical periods, learning and memory, and the pathogenesis of autism. 

Please enjoy!

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[06:25] How Gül designed her own major as an undergrad.

[09:03] Philosophy of mind and theory of mind.

[13:33] What theory of mind in non-human species suggests.

[16:45] The origin of Gül's interest in autism.

[21:37] Autism facts vs. fiction.

[28:31] Critical periods.

[37:59] How critical periods apply to therapies for autism.

[43:37] Why might psychedelics allow us to reopen shut critical periods?

[49:25] MDMA and the octopus.

[52:40] Challenging popular notions about psychedelic research.

[54:52] Plasticity.

[1:00:26] Favorite neurotransmitter receptors.

[1:06:03] Can psychedelics cure allergies?

[1:14:00] Seeking a common pathway for the therapeutic effects of psychedelics.

[1:15:54] Potential applications for kappa-opioid agonists.

[1:17:02] Beta-arrestin developments.

[1:20:40] On Sasha Shulgin.

[1:26:19] Strokes.

[1:29:56] Cross-cultural considerations.

[1:33:26] What do these therapies look like 10 years from now?

[1:36:52] Gauging minimum effective dose.

[1:42:58] The funding frustrations that almost made Gül give up science.

[1:48:44] Taking risks.

[1:52:59] What would Gül change about the way research is funded today?

[1:55:57] Books most gifted.

[1:59:10] Parting thoughts.

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This week's Addicted to Fitness provides information disproving specific nutritional beliefs. Nick and Shannon describe why beliefs like non-dairy milk being superior to dairy milk, all foods high in fat are bad for you, don't feed your toddler peanut products, and others are invalid and potentially deterimental to your health. Follow the podcast profile on Instagram @TheATFPodcast. Give it a listen and let us know what you think by leaving a rating & review in Apple Podcasts.

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Mother's Milk: Milk isn't just an infant-sustaining breast beverage. Join Julie and Robert as they explore the world of lactation. How does milk strengthen our bodies against infection? When did humans mutate into cross-species milk guzzlers? Tune in to learn more.

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