perta1234 t1_j77juof wrote
Reply to comment by sunlitupland5 in Why do some allergies get worse over time and some better? And how does allergen desensitivity work without making the reaction worse? by DontDoDrugs316
Not sure about importance of that compared to larger parasites. One famous ethical problems in science was that people were given infection of... I think it was pig roundworm in stomach. It cannot procreate in human. But the people lost their allergies. So now the ethical question was, do people participating experiment get to keep the worm that is beneficial to them. Anyway, one hypothesis is that allergies are due to lack of parasites when we have a system to fight against them.
CrazyisNSFW t1_j77qfce wrote
Just adding to your reply. I found this paper outlining different, competing hypotheses, and parasite hypothesis is only one of them:
The evolution of IgE-mediated type I hypersensitivity and its immunological value
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