Living in the USA causes allergies

Children born in the United States or who have simply lived in the country for a long time have an increased risk of developing asthma and other forms of allergies. This conclusion was reached by American scientists who studied data from telephone surveys conducted in 2007-2008.

The surveys, covering 92 thousand people, examined the manifestations of asthma, eczema, food and pollen allergies. They showed that such reactions were observed in 20.3% of children living in the United States but born outside the country, versus 34.5% of Native Americans.

However, with time spent in the United States, this difference gradually disappears: children who have lived in the country for more than 10 years show an increasing tendency to develop asthma and pollen allergies, regardless of the age at which they immigrated. They suffered from asthma ten times more often than those who lived in the United States for less than two years, and six times more from pollen allergies.

It must be said that an increased tendency to develop allergic reactions in children in “first world” countries has been shown before. This trend is believed to be caused by insufficient exposure to infectious agents at an early age, which stimulate the development of the immune system.