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SYSK Selects: Gesundheit! How Allergies Work · Stuff You Should Know

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, This is Chuck and welcome to this week's
0:03
Speaker 1: s Y s K Select episode all about allergies. And
0:08
Speaker 1: the reason I picked this one is because, although I
0:11
Speaker 1: think I'm on record in this episode even as saying
0:13
Speaker 1: allergies don't tend to affect me, they beat me this
0:16
Speaker 1: year and I've had a rough time with the pollen,
0:19
Speaker 1: so uh kind of got me thinking about allergies again,
0:21
Speaker 1: and I thought maybe you all could learn a little
0:24
Speaker 1: something to enjoy. Welcome to Stuff you should know from
0:29
Speaker 1: house stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast.
0:38
Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charlestovi, Chuck Bryant looking particularly
0:42
Speaker 1: smart to day's glasses. Check someone with the beard, by
0:46
Speaker 1: the way, that's right. Kind of bibles of mine after
0:49
Speaker 1: making video content, having an entire season of a television
0:52
Speaker 1: show that people still say, wait, I thought it was
0:54
Speaker 1: the other one. Yeah, it's not like this is you know,
0:57
Speaker 1: the radio days of nineteen forties when you really didn't
1:00
Speaker 1: know what people look like like worst and Orsten Wells
1:02
Speaker 1: is a baby face I used to bearded up back
1:05
Speaker 1: in the day. Yeah, I think of him as like
1:08
Speaker 1: the in Citizen Kane early on and he was clean
1:12
Speaker 1: shaving baby face, right, yes, so what are you saying?
1:17
Speaker 1: How's this like, Citizen Kane? It's not okay, good one,
1:23
Speaker 1: thanks man, Um, how you doing. I'm good, A little
1:27
Speaker 1: under the weather, but not because of allergies. You're sure.
1:30
Speaker 1: Well it's funny you said that because Emily was like,
1:33
Speaker 1: you know, you may have some allergies, but sometimes you
1:35
Speaker 1: think you're getting sick and it could just be allergies.
1:38
Speaker 1: It definitely could be. Yeah, well she's super allergic to
1:43
Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff. Yeah, just really bad allergies, not
1:46
Speaker 1: like food allergies, season yes, seasonal pollen, dust fight, brag
1:50
Speaker 1: weed and all that stuff. Yeah. Venom. Yeah, and I
1:53
Speaker 1: grew up. Yeah, I grew up with allergies. I think
1:56
Speaker 1: I've mentioned this before, um, like asthma and all kinds
1:59
Speaker 1: of stuff, And I just grew out of it because
2:02
Speaker 1: that faith healer. Yeah, I guess so, right, I got
2:04
Speaker 1: bit by that rattlesnake and everything was all good. Yeah.
2:07
Speaker 1: Venom it works both ways, right, Actually it does because
2:11
Speaker 1: there's anti venom. Remember didn't we do one on what's
2:14
Speaker 1: the most venomous or poisonous all in the world? That
2:17
Speaker 1: was a good one. It was the country of Australia.
2:20
Speaker 1: It was it's a dangerous place. Well, Chuck, I specifically
2:25
Speaker 1: remember one time when we were at work and you
2:29
Speaker 1: were attacked by a bee and I had to deliver
2:32
Speaker 1: an een shot to your thigh. Remember the whole gang
2:37
Speaker 1: was there, the whole gang. They carted you off in
2:39
Speaker 1: an ambulance. It was really kind of traumatic for us.
2:43
Speaker 1: But I got my magnum p I played that day,
2:45
Speaker 1: so it kind of everything balanced out. Every all's well,
2:48
Speaker 1: that ends well. But what's mind boggling is that you
2:51
Speaker 1: don't even have an allergy two bees. So like what
2:55
Speaker 1: happened there, Well, that was just TV. It was a
2:58
Speaker 1: TV show. Yeah, let me troubled distinguishing reality from fiction
3:02
Speaker 1: these days, other people are too. Had you um had
3:06
Speaker 1: to be allergy? Though, after reading this article you would
3:09
Speaker 1: know what was going on. Yeah, And I think we
3:11
Speaker 1: even covered that in the B podcast, didn't We We
3:13
Speaker 1: covered like anaphylactic shock a little bit. But this is
3:16
Speaker 1: like what we're about to talking about is allergies. The
3:19
Speaker 1: cellular basis of what constitutes an allergy, how they're created,
3:24
Speaker 1: where they come from. It's pretty cool. Yeah, I tried
3:26
Speaker 1: to stump Emily this morning because I thought I was
3:28
Speaker 1: being a smart guy. And even though she has bad allergies, also,
3:30
Speaker 1: I could bet you don't even know what they really are.
3:32
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, she's like, um, yeah, it's an overreaction from
3:35
Speaker 1: your immune system to proceed invader, almost exactly like that,
3:39
Speaker 1: And now I felt really stupid. It's like, oh to
3:41
Speaker 1: perceived invader. She loved it. She's like called me smart
3:45
Speaker 1: guy and like followed me around the house, brow beating me. Yeah. Um,
3:51
Speaker 1: so she's absolutely right, though, I mean, an allergy is
3:53
Speaker 1: basically a case of mistaken identity as far as your
3:56
Speaker 1: immune system is concerned. You know, um, you've got all
3:59
Speaker 1: sorts of foreign invaders coming at you all the time,
4:02
Speaker 1: and we have an immune system to handle these things.
4:05
Speaker 1: But every once in a while, and it depends, they
4:07
Speaker 1: think probably that you are um, genetically unfulfilled if you
4:12
Speaker 1: have allergies. Oh it's not a complete genetic code or something. Yeah,
4:16
Speaker 1: Like you have a little bit of information missing. Your
4:19
Speaker 1: immune system has a little bit of information missing. And
4:22
Speaker 1: so for example that in the article they used the
4:25
Speaker 1: example of um, like, uh, shrimp, You can eat shrimp
4:31
Speaker 1: and there's maybe a protein attached to it that your
4:34
Speaker 1: body is like did he eat this or where did
4:37
Speaker 1: this come from? Or he being attacked by shrimp exactly,
4:40
Speaker 1: And they think probably that all allergies are triggered by proteins.
4:45
Speaker 1: But it's a case of mistaken identity. So let's talk
4:47
Speaker 1: about this. Let's let's get into the immune system a
4:50
Speaker 1: little bit. How how the immune system handles foreign invaders
4:55
Speaker 1: perceived or otherwise. That's right. Uh, well, I guess we
4:58
Speaker 1: could start with something called lymphocyte. And um, you've probably
5:03
Speaker 1: heard of things like T cells and B cells. Those
5:06
Speaker 1: are lymphocytes. Yeah, T cells are if that's how they
5:09
Speaker 1: determine whether you have HIV. I believe like if your
5:11
Speaker 1: T cell count is low because HIV is a it's
5:14
Speaker 1: a an Immunoh. So they are both white blood cells
5:19
Speaker 1: and they are really important to the immune system. Um,
5:23
Speaker 1: but they make mistakes sometimes, right, And I love the
5:27
Speaker 1: way this Who wrote this, by the way, Steve Beach, freelancer,
5:31
Speaker 1: never heard of him. I thought he did a great
5:33
Speaker 1: job though, because he likened the being T cells to
5:38
Speaker 1: custom agents systoms agents just like they go anywhere they
5:41
Speaker 1: want in your body and they investigate cells and basically
5:46
Speaker 1: are like, let me see your papers where you going.
5:49
Speaker 1: It's like, what's the purpose of your visit? It's like
5:51
Speaker 1: arizona in your body. Yeah. Yeah, Like they show up
5:54
Speaker 1: anywhere they can, Like you said, they can make it anywhere.
5:57
Speaker 1: They can pass through membranes and blood vessels and just
6:00
Speaker 1: pop up and they go, who are you lymph notes? Yeah,
6:04
Speaker 1: very important for them to visit the lymph notes. It
6:06
Speaker 1: is very important because that's where they go back and
6:08
Speaker 1: start producing antibodies. Right, that's right. When they see something
6:12
Speaker 1: and they discover a cell and they say, hold on
6:15
Speaker 1: a minute, you'll pap us are not in order, then
6:20
Speaker 1: there's trouble and they launched. Basically they start the attack
6:24
Speaker 1: at that point. And we haven't quite figured this out. Um. Basically,
6:29
Speaker 1: what happens when a B cell, especially encounters in a
6:34
Speaker 1: foreign body, which is called an antigen because they generate antibodies,
6:38
Speaker 1: they trigger the generation of antibodies in your body. In
6:41
Speaker 1: your body, so that's where antigen comes from. Um. The
6:45
Speaker 1: B cell basically takes down all of its data and
6:49
Speaker 1: then goes back up into the lymph nodes, and that
6:52
Speaker 1: that B cell, that white blood cell, turns into a
6:54
Speaker 1: plasma cell and starts churning out antibodies that are specifically
6:58
Speaker 1: tailored to counteract that antigen that for an invader that
7:03
Speaker 1: it encountered. Right, and our body um our bodies have
7:06
Speaker 1: five types of antibodies, and they're called immunoglobulens. I love
7:10
Speaker 1: that word. It's tough to get out, but it's a
7:12
Speaker 1: great word. Yeah. Uh, we'll call them I G s
7:15
Speaker 1: and UM. I G E is the one that's responsible
7:19
Speaker 1: for allergic reactions. Yeah. And the reason that that one
7:21
Speaker 1: is responsible for allergic reactions as we understand them, is
7:24
Speaker 1: because I G ease immunoglobulin ease. Yeah. Right. Um. They
7:29
Speaker 1: attached to mast cells and uh baso fills and those
7:35
Speaker 1: are two different types of UM cells. A mass cell
7:38
Speaker 1: is found in a connective tissue and basi phil is
7:41
Speaker 1: um a type of white blood cell. But they share
7:44
Speaker 1: the commonality that both of them contain histamine. And when
7:47
Speaker 1: they are hijacked by an I G e UM antibody, uh,
7:53
Speaker 1: they basically become little ticking time bombs. So, so think
7:58
Speaker 1: about this when you're when you come in contact with
8:00
Speaker 1: an anogen and your body goes off, that white blood
8:03
Speaker 1: cell goes off and starts producing antibodies. That first moment
8:07
Speaker 1: of contact creates what's called the sensitizing exposure, right, Yeah,
8:12
Speaker 1: and it's it's basically a mistake. It is in the
8:15
Speaker 1: case of allergies, yeah, because I mean, like, there's nothing
8:17
Speaker 1: inherently dangerous about ragweed pollen, and your body can handle
8:22
Speaker 1: b venom and shellfish, right. But it's there's some protein
8:28
Speaker 1: in each of those that certain people's bodies if they
8:30
Speaker 1: don't have the genetic code for their white blood cells
8:33
Speaker 1: to say, oh you pass, You're fine, then there's that
8:36
Speaker 1: case of mistaken identity. Like you said, So, once you
8:39
Speaker 1: have that sensitizing exposure, the first time your body comes
8:42
Speaker 1: across this protein and there's that mistaken identity, it starts
8:45
Speaker 1: producing antibodies, and those antibodies attached in the case of
8:48
Speaker 1: I G S to um baza fills and mass cells,
8:53
Speaker 1: and they start circulating throughout your body just waiting for
8:56
Speaker 1: the next time it encounters that anigin that it's been
8:58
Speaker 1: specifically designed to interact with. That's right, And what happens
9:03
Speaker 1: then they say, hey, I know you, you're not supposed
9:08
Speaker 1: to be here. I'm going to release something called histamine,
9:11
Speaker 1: which is can be a great thing in your body
9:14
Speaker 1: because that's what's gonna you know. That's basically your arsenal
9:17
Speaker 1: fighting this this invader. But it can be a bad
9:21
Speaker 1: thing too, um if too much of it is released,
9:24
Speaker 1: as as we will see in a little while. Yeah.
9:27
Speaker 1: So when in uh, when an and body and I
9:29
Speaker 1: g E connects to an antigen um, it's already connected
9:35
Speaker 1: to a mass seller basophil. Remember those things are loaded
9:38
Speaker 1: with with histamine, so they're basically taking them along for
9:40
Speaker 1: the party, right. Yeah, So when it connects it, it
9:43
Speaker 1: sends a signal to something called um compliment proteins I believe,
9:49
Speaker 1: and those compliment proteins come along and say, oh cool,
9:51
Speaker 1: a chain reaction we can start to fulfill. And they
9:54
Speaker 1: start locking on and locking on and locking on, and
9:56
Speaker 1: once a certain amount of them have kind of locked
9:59
Speaker 1: together along into this um antibody anergin mast cell, basophil
10:06
Speaker 1: joint um, the mass cell or the basi phil goes
10:11
Speaker 1: bluey and all of a sudden you have histamine floating
10:14
Speaker 1: through your body. That's right. It basically destroys those original
10:18
Speaker 1: cells such that the histamine is just released and unduly released.
10:23
Speaker 1: And this is called the allergic cascade. This is what
10:27
Speaker 1: we think of so you you may have come in
10:29
Speaker 1: contact with shrimp and then ten days later you ate shrimp.
10:33
Speaker 1: I I know I had an an allergic reaction shrimp. Um.
10:37
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay, yeah, spoiler all right, UM. And it
10:42
Speaker 1: takes maybe seven to ten days for that sensitizing exposure.
10:46
Speaker 1: From that time to the next time, you could have
10:48
Speaker 1: the allergic cascade, because that's how long it takes for
10:50
Speaker 1: your body produced the antibodies. But when that that allergic
10:53
Speaker 1: cascade is kicked off and the histamine is released, that's
10:56
Speaker 1: when the symptoms that we associate with UM the type
11:00
Speaker 1: of of allergy come about. So like if you inhale
11:04
Speaker 1: it um, your mucous membranes are gonna flare up. You
11:08
Speaker 1: might get hives. Hives which are basically like histamines caused
11:12
Speaker 1: your blood vessels in the area to leak, which makes
11:15
Speaker 1: it swell. That's a hive. Uh sneezing, wheezing all that.
11:19
Speaker 1: I could wheeze right now if you want, if you
11:21
Speaker 1: let me, but it would be really gross. Let's here,
11:24
Speaker 1: I don't want to um because people would say, oh, man, chuck,
11:26
Speaker 1: get to a sanitarium. But I'm sick. I don't have allergies. Sanitary. Yeah,
11:31
Speaker 1: remember that. Yeah, like the Kellogg's thing. Yeah, sure, battle creek, Uh, nausea, diarrhea,
11:38
Speaker 1: little vomiting. Maybe that's like you know, I think that's
11:41
Speaker 1: the scale from least reaction to most. If you're vomiting,
11:46
Speaker 1: then you've ingested something that you're really allergic to. Yeah.
11:48
Speaker 1: You can become swollen usually like the part of your
11:51
Speaker 1: body or the type of reaction you have, right like
11:55
Speaker 1: where if you if your skin swells, if your arms swells,
11:58
Speaker 1: you probably didn't inhale all learn just that it probably
12:02
Speaker 1: came in contact with your skin, like a break in
12:04
Speaker 1: your skin. Yeah. It depends on how you ingest it
12:06
Speaker 1: and how your body reacts to it because it's different
12:09
Speaker 1: for everyone, and severity obviously. But speaking of severity, it
12:13
Speaker 1: can get really bad, which you talked about in the
12:15
Speaker 1: B episode. Um, if this cascade, of this allergic cascade
12:21
Speaker 1: UH is allowed to continue and you have enough of
12:24
Speaker 1: a reaction to it, you have enough antibodies attached to
12:27
Speaker 1: mass cells and bass it fills that a ton of
12:29
Speaker 1: histamine is released, you can be in big trouble. You
12:31
Speaker 1: can go into what's called anaphylactic shock. Yeah, and UH,
12:36
Speaker 1: proceeding that you can have anaphylaxis, which is not quite
12:39
Speaker 1: as bad. It's a it's a bad reaction, but it's
12:43
Speaker 1: not the full blown shock. If you're in full blown
12:45
Speaker 1: shock mode, then you could die easily and within minutes.
12:50
Speaker 1: Even if you have let's say, like a peanut allergy
12:53
Speaker 1: and you accidentally eat those peanuts. Unless you get that
12:56
Speaker 1: injection of epinephrin that's gonna open those airways and restrict
12:59
Speaker 1: the blood vessels back to their normal levels, then you
13:03
Speaker 1: could be a goner, like really soon, right, And that's
13:05
Speaker 1: called scary. That's called a systemic reaction where your whole
13:08
Speaker 1: system is involved in this. And um, you're if you're
13:11
Speaker 1: Since histamine dilates the blood vessels, your blood pressure can drop. Um.
13:16
Speaker 1: It also causes swelling. Uh so like if your airways swollen,
13:21
Speaker 1: that tends to close it off, which means it's tough
13:23
Speaker 1: for you to breathe. Yeah, you could starve your brain
13:25
Speaker 1: and kidneys of oxygen. Um and you know, oregon failure
13:29
Speaker 1: can happen. And I think what they say, several hundred
13:32
Speaker 1: people die in the United States alone each year. Yeah,
13:35
Speaker 1: because we didn't cover this in the UM in the
13:38
Speaker 1: TV episode about bees where I delivered that from Penn
13:42
Speaker 1: and saved your life, if you'll remember. I do remember. Um.
13:45
Speaker 1: But apparently the effects of the epic pen last ten
13:48
Speaker 1: to twenty minutes. Yeah, I didn't realize it was that short. Yeah,
13:51
Speaker 1: so we should have had you outfitted with like a
13:53
Speaker 1: whole belt of those things. I thought you were just
13:55
Speaker 1: good to go once you have the EpiPen shot. Apparently
13:58
Speaker 1: not so. I think it's just like, hey, let's stave
14:00
Speaker 1: off death until we can get you to a hospital.
14:02
Speaker 1: I think so too. But you have to do it
14:04
Speaker 1: early enough so that it can it can have the
14:08
Speaker 1: effect of counteracting that's allergic reaction. Uh. And you you,
14:12
Speaker 1: if it's longer than ten to twenty minutes to get
14:14
Speaker 1: to the hospital, you should probably have more in one pen.
14:16
Speaker 1: But even if you've survived, your brain and your kidneys
14:19
Speaker 1: being starved of oxygen, you can suffer long term damage
14:22
Speaker 1: from going into anaphylactic shock. Yeah. I would be a
14:24
Speaker 1: freak if I had this possibility existing in my life.
14:29
Speaker 1: I would have an EpiPen in my car and my
14:32
Speaker 1: you know, in each room of my house. I would
14:34
Speaker 1: not take any chances. And what about like a peanut
14:36
Speaker 1: allergy too, It's gotta be so easy to come in
14:38
Speaker 1: contact with that. Yeah. Well, and we've mentioned that time
14:42
Speaker 1: on the plane when they said you can't even open
14:44
Speaker 1: peanuts on this flight, and we had people right in
14:46
Speaker 1: they were like, yeah, dude, that's a that could seriously happen, right,
14:49
Speaker 1: And I understand that. What's crazy to me is like,
14:51
Speaker 1: if you fly Delta, they'll give you a peanuts all
14:53
Speaker 1: day long. Well not if someone says that they're allergic.
14:57
Speaker 1: That's the point. Yeah, I guess. So this is a
14:59
Speaker 1: delta for And they said, I'm sorry, everyone, no peanuts
15:01
Speaker 1: today because what's the delt. I thought was towel E
15:05
Speaker 1: is allergic peanuts. Yeah, Everybody's like, oh God, I want
15:09
Speaker 1: my peanuts. I hate Yeah, I guess I'll just eat
15:12
Speaker 1: Press pretzels and Biscott cookies. Dirt dirt. Okay, So all right,
15:20
Speaker 1: let's say you have allergies, or let's say you think
15:23
Speaker 1: you have allergies and you want to go in and
15:26
Speaker 1: find out for sure. There are a couple of ways
15:29
Speaker 1: that they can that they can test this out, honey, Yeah,
15:34
Speaker 1: and and run into a beehive. Uh no, you would
15:38
Speaker 1: do what's called the scratch test. And I've never had
15:41
Speaker 1: one of these. Emily's had one, and she also does immunotherapy,
15:44
Speaker 1: which we'll get to. But they apply a diluted extract
15:47
Speaker 1: of you know, different kinds of allergens to like your
15:51
Speaker 1: back or your arm, and then they scratch you with
15:54
Speaker 1: a needle and they see what happens, and if it
15:57
Speaker 1: becomes swollen and red, then they say, you know, I
16:00
Speaker 1: think you're allergic to ragweed because we just put some
16:03
Speaker 1: on your body and scratched it. They can also do
16:05
Speaker 1: blood tests and search for specific antigens. Yeah, that's better
16:09
Speaker 1: for kids, I think, yeah, because it can cause a
16:12
Speaker 1: sensitizing event in a kid if you expose them to it.
16:15
Speaker 1: Because everybody knows their genes are just stupid. Yeah, they're
16:19
Speaker 1: like a very um susceptible to influence. I guess, which
16:24
Speaker 1: is weird to me. So here's the thing. Does that
16:27
Speaker 1: mean that it's impossible to die from your first beasting?
16:32
Speaker 1: That at what is possible or impossible? Because if there
16:35
Speaker 1: has to be a sensitizing event, how would you come
16:38
Speaker 1: in contact with the venom other than to be stung?
16:41
Speaker 1: How would you become sensitized? I was looking all over
16:44
Speaker 1: the internet, sor and I think One of the things
16:46
Speaker 1: that kind of found well doing additional research for this
16:48
Speaker 1: episode is that we have a pretty good idea of
16:51
Speaker 1: how allergies work, but it's definitely not complete yet. Yeah,
16:55
Speaker 1: I mean when you're on the cellular level, I'm sure
16:57
Speaker 1: there are still some mysteries to be had. But they say,
17:00
Speaker 1: it's like, because one of your questions was, how do
17:03
Speaker 1: they identify that for an invader? And I was happy
17:07
Speaker 1: to just say they identify for an invader, right, and
17:10
Speaker 1: how do they how do they take down its information
17:12
Speaker 1: and then go back to the to the lymph node
17:14
Speaker 1: and start producing an animboo. They had a pin and
17:17
Speaker 1: pad and they had a little golf cart. They did
17:20
Speaker 1: a police sketch. Yeah, that's the way I set um.
17:23
Speaker 1: So you've got scratched therapy, blood tests, they both work,
17:26
Speaker 1: they're okay. Um. And then if you if they say
17:30
Speaker 1: you know what you are you're allergic to somethings Y
17:34
Speaker 1: and Z. There's basically three things they recommend. The first
17:36
Speaker 1: is to avoid that thing whatever it is, sure and
17:40
Speaker 1: if that's shell fish or peanuts, then you're pretty good
17:42
Speaker 1: shape because that's pretty easy to avoid in most cases.
17:45
Speaker 1: You would think, have you ever had a shrimp allergy.
17:48
Speaker 1: Shrimp is pretty delicious, No, but it's it's easier to
17:52
Speaker 1: avoid than pollen, let's say, because pollen's everywhere, especially here
17:55
Speaker 1: in the South. So if you're allergic to pollen, there's
17:57
Speaker 1: no avoiding it. I mean there's cars that all the
17:59
Speaker 1: car is in the spring in the South, or yellow.
18:02
Speaker 1: Every car's painting the streets run yellow. Literally. Yeah. Yeah, Um,
18:06
Speaker 1: so you would take medication accorded coasteroid. You might walk
18:10
Speaker 1: around with an F and f rompen depending on what
18:12
Speaker 1: you are allergic to. Um, you know that kind of thing.
18:16
Speaker 1: And then the third one is what you said Emily
18:19
Speaker 1: was doing and what I've done before too, which is
18:20
Speaker 1: immunotherapy done this I think? So, I mean I undertook
18:25
Speaker 1: the process of immunotherapy by myself and it seems to
18:29
Speaker 1: have worked. I was about to say, did a doctor
18:31
Speaker 1: give you injections at point in your life? Tell me
18:34
Speaker 1: about Emily's experience. Well, she she does the standard immunotherapy
18:37
Speaker 1: where she goes into to get her allergy shots once
18:41
Speaker 1: a month, I think, And um, they start you out
18:44
Speaker 1: on a on a low uh dose that's like a
18:48
Speaker 1: basically a weak delusion of these antigens. And they they
18:53
Speaker 1: injected in her body and just build that up over
18:56
Speaker 1: time to increase her her immune response I guess right.
18:59
Speaker 1: And then over time, so this is what they think
19:01
Speaker 1: happens over time. Either the body possibly gets it's genetic
19:08
Speaker 1: information filled in enough so that it's it's like, oh,
19:12
Speaker 1: was my face red because this wasn't actually a foreign invader,
19:16
Speaker 1: It's just a shrimp protein UM. And or they believe
19:21
Speaker 1: that another UH and a body I g G, which
19:26
Speaker 1: acts as kind of like a blocking antibody that prevents
19:29
Speaker 1: an allergic reaction, UM starts to build up as a
19:33
Speaker 1: as a result of immunotherapy. We should say, I think
19:37
Speaker 1: immunotherapy is still fairly controversial, is it. I believe so,
19:41
Speaker 1: because it's introducing, you know, a potentially dangerous thing into
19:44
Speaker 1: a human being. And it's not like if you ask
19:48
Speaker 1: somebody if honey as a good immunotherapy, Logically it should
19:53
Speaker 1: make sense. If you use local honey, very very local honey,
19:56
Speaker 1: it's going to contain some of the same pollen um
19:59
Speaker 1: that you're supposed to that you're allergic to in it,
20:02
Speaker 1: and so when you eat it, when you ingested, it's
20:04
Speaker 1: like taking that low level and it should be doing
20:06
Speaker 1: the same thing as that, you know, taking injections from
20:09
Speaker 1: the doctor, but it's more delicious and it takes a
20:13
Speaker 1: long time. At we's been at it for she was
20:15
Speaker 1: at it for a couple of years without virtually no
20:18
Speaker 1: uh success, right, so it takes Has it been helping
20:22
Speaker 1: though at all? I think so, because she still has
20:25
Speaker 1: bad allergies, but they used to be way worse. But
20:28
Speaker 1: she's been on these shots now for like, I mean,
20:30
Speaker 1: she did it when she was a kid and then
20:31
Speaker 1: she's been on it again for like five years. Probably
20:34
Speaker 1: it's been a while. So I've I've had one serious.
20:38
Speaker 1: It wasn't even serious, but it was my distinct allergic reaction.
20:42
Speaker 1: And it was shrimp once and I ate it and
20:45
Speaker 1: you mean, just like why are you red? And like
20:47
Speaker 1: what are those red dots all over you? What's going on?
20:49
Speaker 1: And uh, I figured out I was. I was having
20:53
Speaker 1: an allergic reaction to shrimp. So I've never had before, right,
20:56
Speaker 1: and I love shrimp. And I tried it the next day,
20:58
Speaker 1: tried a little by a shrimp kind of had a
21:00
Speaker 1: similar reaction. So I was like, something's going on here.
21:03
Speaker 1: So I decided that I was going to get myself
21:05
Speaker 1: over my shrimp allergy. Right. Have you ever had shrimp chips? Uh? Yes,
21:14
Speaker 1: They're delicious. They're delicious. They're like little kind of potato
21:17
Speaker 1: chip French fries with their shrimp flavor because they have
21:20
Speaker 1: shrimp dust on them, like sexual powdered shrimp shrimp dust.
21:24
Speaker 1: So I started like very eating little amounts of shrimp chip,
21:27
Speaker 1: and then over the over time I would eat more
21:30
Speaker 1: whole bags of them at a time, you know. Um,
21:32
Speaker 1: and then finally I get to the point where I
21:34
Speaker 1: could eat shrimping it. I don't know if that really
21:36
Speaker 1: cured me or if that was just a fluke, like
21:39
Speaker 1: maybe that shrimp was just a local type of shrimp
21:42
Speaker 1: and Carolinas or something like. But um, that's that's my
21:46
Speaker 1: immunotherapy story. Well, you can eat shrimp now like Gangbusters,
21:50
Speaker 1: So yeah, and I do, do you really? Yeah, whenever
21:53
Speaker 1: I can. I like shrimp. I'm trying to make up
21:55
Speaker 1: for lost time because I spent like three years, two
21:58
Speaker 1: years without eating shrimp. So be where prawns and Trump
22:01
Speaker 1: of the world, gosh, number eat you live? Will you know?
22:07
Speaker 1: Okay that's gross. No, it's not people do that. Um,
22:11
Speaker 1: I guess that's it. Yeah, that is allergies. And I
22:14
Speaker 1: bet the reason I quizzed Emily is because I think
22:16
Speaker 1: a lot of people who have allergies don't even understand
22:19
Speaker 1: the core concepts. And uh yeah, hopefully now you do that.
22:24
Speaker 1: It's a case of mistaken identity. It's so awesome. Yeah,
22:27
Speaker 1: and your your DNA is dumb or incomplete. Okay, UM,
22:34
Speaker 1: if you like this, you should go check out how
22:36
Speaker 1: allergies work. You can type them in the search bar
22:38
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. You can also look up
22:41
Speaker 1: another article I wrote about using honey for immunotherapy. That's
22:44
Speaker 1: pretty interesting. Um. Probably like honey allergies maybe would be
22:49
Speaker 1: too good words of putting the search bar for that one. Um,
22:52
Speaker 1: and I said the search bar twice, which means we're
22:54
Speaker 1: gonna have to listener males. Huh just one o. Well, first,
22:58
Speaker 1: before we do that, how about a word from our
22:59
Speaker 1: sponsor time for listener mal Okay, I'm gonna call this
23:06
Speaker 1: in the name of the fire guys. I just listened
23:10
Speaker 1: to your cast on stunt men stunt women, let's just
23:15
Speaker 1: say stunt people, and I was reminded of his story.
23:17
Speaker 1: I thought you might like to hear my dad as
23:19
Speaker 1: an actor and way back in the nineties, he was
23:20
Speaker 1: in a film called In the Name of the Father,
23:22
Speaker 1: Remember that, Oh yeah, with Daniel day Lewis. Right, great
23:25
Speaker 1: movie is that his dad? Um? He said? It stars
23:29
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln or Daniel day Lewis. In the film he
23:34
Speaker 1: played and this is one of my favorite like movies
23:36
Speaker 1: from that year. By the way, it's about the I
23:38
Speaker 1: r A, wasn't it. Yeah? It was about like a
23:41
Speaker 1: wrongfully imprisoned um group of friends basically that they suspected
23:47
Speaker 1: as being like bombers. I don't want to give ways
23:49
Speaker 1: too much, okay, but there is a prison in the film.
23:54
Speaker 1: He played a prison guard who gets set on fire
23:56
Speaker 1: by some pretty nasty inmates. So I guess there's a
23:59
Speaker 1: fire too in the Guard. In the Guard, what happens
24:03
Speaker 1: next served as a warning for any actor who decides
24:05
Speaker 1: their up for performing their own stunts. The director decide
24:07
Speaker 1: of my dad could do some flailing and running with
24:10
Speaker 1: his arms on fire, and that a stunt professional would
24:13
Speaker 1: do the more intense full body fire shots. We like
24:17
Speaker 1: we said in the Stunt Person podcast, like the fire thing.
24:20
Speaker 1: You're always running, you going, what what do you doing?
24:22
Speaker 1: You're on fire? Do you stand there? Like? Can someone
24:24
Speaker 1: put me out. Some people do Buddhist monks just sit there.
24:27
Speaker 1: Well that, yeah, that's different. I'm ready on the one.
24:32
Speaker 1: They wrapped up his arms, covered them in jelly, and
24:35
Speaker 1: set them ablaze. But what my dad had failed to
24:38
Speaker 1: realize is that the stuntmen do not wait for anyone
24:40
Speaker 1: to say action. As a result, he just stood there
24:43
Speaker 1: on fire, waiting for someone to say he could go,
24:46
Speaker 1: while it's getting hotter and hotter with each passing second.
24:49
Speaker 1: Fortunately the director eventually realized what was happening and hastily
24:54
Speaker 1: yelled go. But by this time my dad was way
24:58
Speaker 1: too hot and just kind of side stuff up into
25:00
Speaker 1: the shot, waving his arms like a half baked ballerina.
25:03
Speaker 1: If you watch the scene carefully you can actually see
25:05
Speaker 1: the shots. He was really on fire, and by the
25:09
Speaker 1: genuine fear and panic in his eyes, I hope you
25:11
Speaker 1: guys carry on making knees for as long as humanly possible.
25:15
Speaker 1: That is Freddie Turner from Oxford, England. Nice. And I
25:19
Speaker 1: guess Freddie or Mollie didn't Saycy Jr. Was on fire?
25:25
Speaker 1: And I think Jim Sheridan was a director of that movie,
25:27
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, So Jim Sherdan was the one
25:30
Speaker 1: who say go oh, yeah, that's a pretty great listener mail, Yeah,
25:34
Speaker 1: that's a good one. Was the dude's name, Freddie, Freddie
25:37
Speaker 1: Freddie pretty turner in Oxford Englin. Cool Um. Well, if
25:40
Speaker 1: you have a great story associated with something we've talked about,
25:43
Speaker 1: as always, we want to hear it, You can tweak
25:45
Speaker 1: to us at s Y s K podcast. You can
25:47
Speaker 1: join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know.
25:50
Speaker 1: You can send us an email to Stuff Podcast at
25:53
Speaker 1: Discovery dot com and check out our website Stuff you
25:56
Speaker 1: Should Know dot com. For more on this and thousands
26:06
Speaker 1: of other topics, visit how Stuff Works dot com. M