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How Hypoallergenic Cats Work · Stuff You Should Know

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  Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
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  Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
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  Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot Com? Meaw, and welcome to
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  Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. That's Chuck Bryant. I was
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  Speaker 1: the same thing. That's yeah, I was cat. That was terrible.
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  Speaker 1: It was a pretty bad. That's about as good as
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  Speaker 1: your elvis impression. Um, actually, Chuck, it was great. Um,
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I just can't so, Chuck, you have cat.
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  Speaker 1: I have two cats. I have Laurn and I have
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  Speaker 1: the Wizard. Nice two cats. You hate it when people
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  Speaker 1: name their pets like actual human names, like Jason or
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  Speaker 1: you know, Gina. You know my in laws are big
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  Speaker 1: on that. They always give their dogs regular names. Well,
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  Speaker 1: my apologies to your in laws. Chick, well Laurn, it
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  Speaker 1: gets conceivably your real name, but the Wizard the Wizard. Yet,
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  Speaker 1: you're you're probably going to be brought up on charges
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  Speaker 1: if you name your kid the Wizard. Okay, So, so
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  Speaker 1: you know what it's like to live among tumble weeds
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  Speaker 1: of of hair just kind of going through your house.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the mice put on little um gunslinging shows
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  Speaker 1: too for your amusement kind of thing. Right, Between our
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  Speaker 1: two cats and two dogs, we could literally collect enough
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  Speaker 1: hair each week to make an entirely new animal. Yeah. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I could sweep every day and still get an astronomical amount. Up,
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  Speaker 1: I'm too lazy, though, I don't sweep every day. So
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  Speaker 1: we live in a toxic environment. My wife, Emily is
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  Speaker 1: is she Yeah, but she loves animals so much that
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  Speaker 1: she lives with it. And so your wife, Emily, you realize,
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  Speaker 1: is part of the one third of Americans who love
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  Speaker 1: cats so much that they keep them even though they're
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  Speaker 1: allergic to them. Yeah, think about that. A third of
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  Speaker 1: the people who are allergic to cats still keep That
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  Speaker 1: says something about cats. It really does, doesn't it. Yeah
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  Speaker 1: that's pretty cool. Yeah, it's awesome. So what does Emily
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  Speaker 1: do for allergies? Well, she's got big allergies as a
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  Speaker 1: hole anyway, So she's on shots and pills and nasal sprays.
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  Speaker 1: And there's a voodoo guy that comes around once a
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  Speaker 1: week and does a little nude dance in our room,
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  Speaker 1: and that has nothing to do with the allergy. Nothing.
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  Speaker 1: She did you dye your hair read recently? No, she
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  Speaker 1: has not, So she's on a slew of things, but
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  Speaker 1: it still acts up. You know, those are some bad
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  Speaker 1: allergy You got bad allergies? Wow, How how often does
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  Speaker 1: it act up? Uh, it's the allergy shots have kind
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  Speaker 1: of worked, so it's not as often, but you know,
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  Speaker 1: during the worst of times, it was, you know, a
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  Speaker 1: couple of times a week severe debilitating allergy as well. Yeah. Well,
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  Speaker 1: and is it because of the cat. I'm sure that
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  Speaker 1: doesn't help. Yeah, you know, I think her allergiest said
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  Speaker 1: you should get rid of your animals, and she kind
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  Speaker 1: of said, thanks, I'll get a new allergist. Well, okay,
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  Speaker 1: So so she's a third of the population. People who
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  Speaker 1: are allergic to cats still keep them, and about fifteen
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  Speaker 1: the thirty percent of the population of the United States
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  Speaker 1: has a ager cat allergy. Yeah, that's actually a lot
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  Speaker 1: more people than I thought. It was pretty substantial, and
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  Speaker 1: you know a lot of them will actually undergo uh
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  Speaker 1: immunotherapy to kind of get over their allergy to it.
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  Speaker 1: And it's just the shots. It is it's it's the shots.
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  Speaker 1: It's um. It's basically it's like using local honey to
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  Speaker 1: get over hay fever. Same concept, um, And the local
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  Speaker 1: honey thing hasn't been proven, but it seems to work.
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  Speaker 1: This actually has been proven. And all it is is
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  Speaker 1: you're introducing a low level of the UM, the allergen
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  Speaker 1: that's causing the allergic reaction UM, and letting your body
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  Speaker 1: get used to it. Correct. You want to talk about
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  Speaker 1: allergic reactions for a second. That's my favorite topic, is it? Really?
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  Speaker 1: I just have to deal with it a lot, so
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  Speaker 1: I'm used to it. Okay, do you want to explain him? Uh?
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  Speaker 1: I feel better if you did. Okay. So basically, UM,
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  Speaker 1: an allergic reaction is nothing more than a case of
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  Speaker 1: mistaken identity. Okay. So the cat allergy, the allergy in
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  Speaker 1: that you're you're allergic to from the cat. Will get
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  Speaker 1: to that in a second. UM, It's actually totally benign.
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  Speaker 1: What happens is if the first time your body is
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  Speaker 1: introduced to it and it takes it as a foreign invader, UM,
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  Speaker 1: it will produce and uh animbody to fight it off,
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  Speaker 1: and then every time it comes at it, it will
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  Speaker 1: produce that anibody again. And basically one of the results
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  Speaker 1: is the release of histamines, which actually UM makes your
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  Speaker 1: It opens up the capillaries and your soft tissue, which
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  Speaker 1: is why your eyes water and your sneeze and your
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  Speaker 1: gums bleed and you get the spins. Yeah, well that's
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  Speaker 1: another one too. Yeah. So so that's actually the reason
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  Speaker 1: why that's amazing, he really think. So, yeah, how the
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  Speaker 1: human body works. I love that stuff. I think it's
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  Speaker 1: strange that the human body can make a mistake like that,
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  Speaker 1: you know, stupid body. Yeah. So, so what is this
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  Speaker 1: cat allergen? I believe it's called UM. I'm not sure
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  Speaker 1: if you say it or spell it, and I'm gonna
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  Speaker 1: spell it f E L D one glycoprotein and f
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  Speaker 1: L clearly stands for a feline. So no matter how
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  Speaker 1: you say it, what it is is UM. It's something
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  Speaker 1: that cats secrete through their skin and their saliva. And
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  Speaker 1: it's actually smaller than dust. Yeah, and it gets everywhere,
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  Speaker 1: doesn't it does. There was actually a study of UM
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  Speaker 1: a mattress store in Sweden. This was disturbing. It was disturbing. Um,
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  Speaker 1: they're all these mattresses for sale. You know how they
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  Speaker 1: have mattresses out box spring sets and you can lay
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  Speaker 1: on them. They actually, Um, you have never been one
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  Speaker 1: to actually get on the mattress, but you know, people
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  Speaker 1: rolling around and stuff. I don't like that at all.
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  Speaker 1: So these are brand new mattresses that have never been
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  Speaker 1: in anyone's home, and they the Swedes tested them for
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  Speaker 1: the felled one GLCO or the fel D one glycoprotein
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  Speaker 1: UH and found it in aces on every single one
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  Speaker 1: of them. So this just came from people that the cats.
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  Speaker 1: So it's very easily transferred, very small. Um, it's almost
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  Speaker 1: impossible to get rid of UH. And your cat produces
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  Speaker 1: it constantly through saliva. A glycoprotein. Actually it's it's it
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  Speaker 1: does all sorts of different stuff. It's found everywhere. Um,
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  Speaker 1: it conserves a lubricant. Uh, it can serve as a
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  Speaker 1: connective tissue, right. Uh. It's also structural, so it can
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  Speaker 1: be found in cell walls. It's all over the place,
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  Speaker 1: and it's big and keratin, which is the hair partly, right,
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  Speaker 1: which is why pet dander is so allergic. You got it? Okay, man,
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  Speaker 1: you're smarter than I thought. How Thanks, It's good stuff.
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  Speaker 1: So okay, that's the glycoprotein, right, that's the histamine reaction.
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  Speaker 1: That is the you know cat thing. We've already discussed
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  Speaker 1: all of our and a lot of people are allergic
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  Speaker 1: to UH. Two cats. I think the stat is umi
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  Speaker 1: of asthma cases are allergy related, and of those are
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  Speaker 1: cat allergies. Yeah, okay, yeah, cats in particular tune to
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  Speaker 1: be very allergic. So what do you do, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: asides you know Emily's course of action. Sure, I know
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  Speaker 1: one thing that the article mentions is washing your cat
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  Speaker 1: twice a week. But if your cat, my cat, cats
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  Speaker 1: don't like that. No. I washed my kitten, Lauren when
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  Speaker 1: I found him in a dumpster in Los Angeles. And
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  Speaker 1: I washed him when I first got him immediately because
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  Speaker 1: he was a dumpster kittie. And uh, I tried to
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  Speaker 1: wash him again about and he's I don't probably five
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  Speaker 1: years old now. I tried to wash him again give
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  Speaker 1: him a fleet path about six months ago, and he
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  Speaker 1: was not happy. Now now, he he just complained a lot.
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  Speaker 1: He didn't he didn't like fight us or anything. But yeah,
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  Speaker 1: there are some cats out there that will draw blood
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  Speaker 1: if you try to put water on them. My other cat,
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  Speaker 1: the Wizard, would he would attack. Yeah, so you know
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  Speaker 1: better than to wash him. So that's not necessarily an
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  Speaker 1: appropriate course of action either. No, depending on your cat.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know what is please tell me you could
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  Speaker 1: buy what is called a hypo allergenic cat. Yes, if
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  Speaker 1: you have a cool six thousand dollars to spare six grand,
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  Speaker 1: it's actually what probably so six grand. There's a company
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  Speaker 1: called Allerca, uh, and it's an American company, I believe.
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  Speaker 1: And basically they have created a cat that they market
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  Speaker 1: as a hypoallergenic cat. And they don't have to prove
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  Speaker 1: that one bit. According to the FDA anything, any product
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  Speaker 1: in the US marketed as hypoallergenic doesn't have to produce
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  Speaker 1: any proof whatsoever that it's hypo allergenic. And hypoallergenic doesn't
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  Speaker 1: mean allergy free. It just means that there's a much
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  Speaker 1: less likelihood, um that you that it will produce an
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  Speaker 1: allergic reaction. But to back up its claims, Allerca published
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  Speaker 1: its own study UH. And basically the study could be
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  Speaker 1: called here smell these cats. So they took some people
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  Speaker 1: who who are known to have cat allergies and control
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  Speaker 1: group uh that that doesn't have cat allergies, and um,
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  Speaker 1: they used the the Allerca Allerca cats and basically said,
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  Speaker 1: here you go, you know, here's this cat, and neither
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  Speaker 1: group react to the cat. It seems to work. But
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  Speaker 1: then they used a non out regular cat and yeah
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  Speaker 1: there was a reaction, right, it's kind of meat, but
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  Speaker 1: it is really serves to help market their cause. Well,
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  Speaker 1: the first thing I thought when I saw this article
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  Speaker 1: about hypologenic cats is that it was some sort of
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  Speaker 1: weird bioengineered type of thing, like a a mouse within
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  Speaker 1: ear growing out it's back, right, which we have a
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  Speaker 1: picture of. It's really weird looking disturbing. We paid extra
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  Speaker 1: for that one. It's an ap photo. It's worth every penny. Um. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it's not actually bioengineering though, So those that that I
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  Speaker 1: don't agree with things like that, don't worry. It's actually
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  Speaker 1: selective breeding, yes, And selective breeding basically is you're just
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  Speaker 1: taking um, you know, a group that has a desirable
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  Speaker 1: trait and and continuing to breed them while not letting
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  Speaker 1: them breed with the the cats that have the trait
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  Speaker 1: you don't want. And in this case, um Alerca used
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  Speaker 1: a process called bioinformatic, which is basically slapping computers and
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  Speaker 1: molecular biology together. And from what I gather, they fed
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  Speaker 1: the genetic makeup of I guess, several different breeds of
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  Speaker 1: cats into through an algorithm and it basically spit out
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  Speaker 1: likelihoods that that these breeds would stop producing the fel
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  Speaker 1: D one glycoprotein based on their genetic makeup. Right, it's
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  Speaker 1: no wonder. It cost six grand yeah yeah, right, so
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  Speaker 1: they and I imagine selective breeding keeping these cats from
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  Speaker 1: mating constantly. It's probably a real pain. It's a job. Um.
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  Speaker 1: So they what what the computer basically said was go
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  Speaker 1: check out the British short hair, and so they grabbed
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  Speaker 1: the British short hair, which I guess had the highest
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  Speaker 1: likelihood of abandoning this gene that produces it. Right, Well,
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  Speaker 1: actually it doesn't. It still has the the f l
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  Speaker 1: D one protein, but it's just a different version of it, right, Okay, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it has a different molecular way exactly, absolutely okay. Um,
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  Speaker 1: So they basically bread it, bread it out of them.
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  Speaker 1: They bread the the f LD one f e l
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  Speaker 1: D one. We're gonna breathe that Glaco protein right out
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  Speaker 1: of you right now. Yeah. And and what what happened
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  Speaker 1: was these the Alerca cats. Now they may look exactly
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  Speaker 1: like a British short hair cat, but it's technically another species.
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  Speaker 1: A species a speciation event actually just occurred thanks to Alerca. Right,
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  Speaker 1: So it's genetic divergence. It's where you take one thing
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  Speaker 1: and put them in there, split them in the two
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  Speaker 1: on the tree of life. So yeah, oh yeah, they
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  Speaker 1: there's a two year waiting list last I heard, and
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  Speaker 1: you could cut the waiting time in half so you
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  Speaker 1: could get it in a year, but you had to
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  Speaker 1: pay an extra two grand, so an eight thousand dollar
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  Speaker 1: cat and you had to wait a year for it. Right,
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  Speaker 1: So I guess they are pretty popular. Either that or
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  Speaker 1: they're breeding fairly slowly. Right, These are some serious cat
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  Speaker 1: lovers out there, there are. But then again, I mean
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  Speaker 1: your wife, she puts up with these allergies and she
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  Speaker 1: would draw the line there though. Yeah. Well, I guess
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  Speaker 1: the moral for today is cat's equal. Great And if
• 12:02
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• 12:05
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