The history behind your hay fever

By: Gabbi Di Marino, fellow allergy sufferer and content manager

Allergies have been a part of my life for as a long as I can remember. Not just to pollen, but to pet dander and dust as well, and although I’ve been lucky enough to curb most of my dander and dust allergies as I’ve gotten older, my hay fever is one that can’t quite seem to let me go. 

And I’ve had a lot of questions about allergies too, like whether or not they were a fairly recent problem, how the study of allergies even came about, and why I even developed them in the first place. So, if you’re also looking for answers, read on!

How scientists came to discover allergies

Clemens Von Pirquet - Britannica

Although allergies, and asthma, have been documented in ancient texts, the story of how we’ve come to understand allergies in today’s world only began in the 18th century. It officially started in 1819 with a London doctor named John Bostock. Bostock, another fellow sufferer of hay fever, submitted a detailed report of his own symptoms (sneezing, watery eyes, runny nose...poor guy). Though, at the time, there was no concrete explanation for why hay fever, or summer colds as they were then known as, happened in the first place. It wasn’t until 1859 when Charles Harrison Blackely, a doctor in Manchester, became determined to find the actual cause behind “summer colds” that we finally started getting real answers. Popular theories at the time blamed the heat, but Blackely, with much research, finally discovered that hay fever was actually caused by pollen! 

But progress was slow when it came to identifying other allergies, deciding on a real name for the condition, or coming up with concrete methods of treatment to curb the bothersome symptoms. 

In the 19th century, though, things began to change. Starting in 1905, Clemens von Pirquet, an Austrian pediatrician, noticed some of his patients having fast and dramatic reactions to the second dose of their smallpox vaccine. He quickly realized that this was caused by the patient’s immune systems fighting off the foreign substance of the serum, and in 1906, Pirquet would call this reaction allergies.

In the years following, the term allergies became associated with hay fever, asthma, skin diseases, and anaphylaxis! The medical interest in allergies also skyrocketed, with clinics and studies opening up worldwide, and in the 1950’s, more significant findings happened, like the discovery of mast cells - cells packed with chemicals, like histamine, that produce the symptoms of a nagging allergic reaction. And scientists are still doing their best to research this complicated and diverse series of reactions that allergies of all kinds bring about, but the question on our minds, and probably yours too, is what causes a person to have allergies in the first place? 

Why do allergies happen?

It’s a complicated question, one without a specific answer, but scientists do have some understanding of where this condition starts - your genetics. And it’s not just one specific gene that determines whether or not you have allergies, it’s a series of them. During any baby’s first days and months in the world, the immune system is supposed to start distinguishing between helpful and harmful stuff in their environment. Those with genetic predisposition to allergies, however, experience misfires where the immune system mistakes certain things like cat dander as something the body should fight against. And this condition isn’t a rare one either. Allergies are currently the 6th leading cause of chronic illnesses with over 50 million people in the U.S. alone under its grasp, me included. 

If you could have a one-on-one interview with a scientist, what’s a question you’d ask them about allergies? Comment your answer below!