Allergic to life : how the human body rejects the modern world / Frank Lichtenberger.
Lichtenberger, Frank.
2023
RC585.9
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Title Allergic to life : how the human body rejects the modern world / Frank Lichtenberger.
Author Lichtenberger, Frank.
ISBN 303146026X
9783031460265 (electronic bk.)
3031460251
9783031460258
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46026-5
Imprint Cham : Springer, [2023]
Language English
Description 1 online resource (xiv, 179 pages) : illustrations (chiefly color)
Other Standard Identifiers 10.1007/978-3-031-46026-5 doi
Call Number RC585.9
Dewey Decimal Classification 616.97
Summary This easy-to-read title provides a comprehensive discussion of the major changes in daily life that have led to states of increased bodily inflammation. Indeed, today there is an epidemic of allergic and autoimmune disease in the first and developing world. While outdoor climate change is now considered common knowledge, the impact of longer work hours, artificial lighting, increased food shelf life, and changes to the microbiome all have made a large impact in increasing allergies worldwide. An allergy, best defined as a damaging response from the Immune system due to a substance in the environment, starts with warning signals, or generalized "symptoms," that are caused by something in the environment. Itching, aches, pains, swelling, coughing, and fatigue are all immune responses. Written in an engaging -- and often humorous -- style by an allergist/immunologist, the first three chapters outline how the human body is in an unquestionably harmful environment, and that, in general, the immune system is just doing its job. In subsequent chapters, the specific topics contributing to allergies are covered in detail, starting with microorganisms and a focus on indoor living. Dust mites, for example, are addressed in one full chapter -- and for good reason. The past few decades have seen an explosion of climate controlled, humidified indoor airspace that is ideally suited for more mass production of mites. In the end, emphasizes the author, all roads of inflammation from the environment lead to the mast cell compartment. The stress responses of the body summarily drive up this compartment and have led to a world-wide prevalence of between 14% to 17% of mast cell activation syndrome. While genetics and comorbid conditions are important in any symptom or disease process, the mast cell compartment feeds and grows off all the major environmental changes of the past 50 or so years. This is why the human body in the 21st century is in a low level state of rejection, of the world, says the author. Most of these changes are irreversible, but the situation is not hopeless. Understanding how the body changes itself in response to its environment will allow controlled desensitization to the environment. Allergic to Life: How the Human Body Rejects the Modern World serves as a concise and lively text for clinicians and general readers interested in a deep, expert dive into the world of allergy and immunology. .
Note Description based upon print version of record.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Available in Other Form Allergic to Life
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Intro
Preface
Concerning Humans
Key Terms
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction: Allergic to Life
1.1 We're Not Supposed to Be Here
1.2 It Is Not a Weakness, It's a Changed World
1.3 How Did Humans Get Here?
1.4 Inflammation Is Felt When the Immune System Is Working More than Normal
1.5 What Is "Normal" Anyways?
1.6 People Tend to Think they Are the Cause of Their Problems
1.7 Bad Habits Do Not Mean Bad Humans
1.8 Seriously, Humans Are Not Trying to Hurt Humans on Purpose
1.9 The Grand Experiment: Human Life

1.10 Responding to Long Term Stress: Hypertrophy Vs Atrophy
1.11 Too Much of a Good Thing Is Bad-What Does that Even Mean?
1.12 There Is No Understanding of an Ideal Environment for Humans
1.13 Feeling Better Starts with...... Feeling Better About Oneself
1.14 This Is Not a Cure for Anything
1.15 Simplified Summary
Reference
Chapter 2: A Strange New World, Same Old Humans: Allergic to Life
2.1 Get Human Laws Off the Human Body
2.2 The Gift that Keeps on Giving Blisters
2.3 The World Current Humans Live in Is Excessively Unnatural

2.4 Different Is Different, Not Good or Bad
2.5 The Immune System Is Not a Perfect Defense System
2.6 Born Ready to Fight: Innate Immunity
2.7 Remembering the Environmental Threats: Adaptive Immunity
2.8 When Adapting Doesn't Go Perfectly
2.9 Modern Practice Still Not Perfect
2.10 Rheumatic Fever: Too Much Immunity
2.11 Efficiency: This Is the Name of the Game
2.12 Allergies Are Completely Immune System Mistakes
2.13 Summary
Bibliography
Chapter 3: Mechanisms of Rejection
3.1 Everything Is Falling Apart, So Let's Tie It All Together

3.2 Rejection Part 1: Immune System, It's About Food
3.3 Barrier Immunity: Borders of the Body
3.4 When Defense Becomes Offense
3.5 Mast Cells Externally Respond to the Environment, But Internally Adapt the Human Body
3.6 Rejection Part 2: Nervous System (Autonomic)-It's Still About Food
3.7 Automatically for the People
3.8 Mast Cells Connect the Autonomic Nervous System to the Immune System
3.9 Turning It All Off
3.10 The Immune System and the Autonomic System Are in Constant Communication
3.11 Simplified Summary
References
Chapter 4: House Dust Mites

4.1 The First Allergists and the Worst Allergy
4.2 A Toxic Long-Term Relationship
4.3 Humans Are Food
4.4 Don't Forget the Yeast Fixins'
4.5 Its All About Pumping Iron
4.6 What Are House Dust Mites?
4.7 The Inflammation Does Not Stop with Allergies
4.8 100% of Clean Homes Have Dust Mites
4.9 I Give Up, Feed My Worthless Human Body to the Mites
4.10 Sensitization Is a Two-Way Street
4.11 Simplified Summary
Further Reading
Chapter 5: The Human Ecosystem
5.1 In the Time of Chimpanzees, I Was a Monkey

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