Allergic to Life (Springer, Berlin)

As a practicing Allergist/Immunologist, I have written a general interest medical book on allergic disease, summarizing several of the major changes in day to day life over the past 50 years that has led tostates of increased inflammation. There is now an Epidemic of allergicand autoimmune disease in the first and developing world. While outdoorclimate change is now considered common knowledge, the impact oflonger work hours, artificial lighting, increased food shelf life and changesto the microbiome all have made a large impact. An "Allergy" is best defined as an "damaging response from theImmune system due to a substance in the environment." Immune responses start asout warning signals, or generalized "symptoms" that are caused żeby something inthe environment. Itching, aches, pains, swelling, coughing, and fatigue arejust Immune responses. Humans have adapted and dwell in extremely differentenvironments all over the world, but there is no place on the planet thathasn't been drastically affected żeby the planetary changes of the past 50 years.The cost of becoming the modern world is obvious, and recognized as is a globalpriority. But more than the polar ice caps or global warming, the personalmicroenvironment, I.E the things in people's lives that their body interactswith on a daily basis My hope is that after the first two chapters, readers should beaware that their body is in an unquestionably harmful environment, and that forthe most part the Immune system is just doing its job. With the followingchapters we get into the specifics, starting with microorganisms. The humanbody needs good bacteria to feel good, unfortunately we killed them all. Wedidn't kill the good ones on purpose, at the time there was no real clue howimportant good bacteria were. The miracle of antibiotics has transformed theworld - but at the cost of the good bacteria. Bacteria are much simplerorganisms and their reproductive life cycle is measured in hours to days. The next two chapters focus on indoor living, where we spend 98%of our day. Dust mites are worth a whole chapter on discussion. Whilescientists have been aware of these nearly invisible parasites for hundreds ofyears, and they have existed within our society since Ancient Egypt. The pastfew decades have seen an explosion of climate controlled, humidified indoorairspace that is ideally suited more mass production of mites. They cannot bekilled and they cannot be cleaned. At approximately 75% of the way throughthe book the reader should have complete awareness that the environment weexist in is alien, hostile, and our bodies are doing an amazing job stillhanging on!All roads of inflammation from the environment lead to the mastcell compartment. The stresses responses of the body, summarily drive up thiscompartment of the body, and has led to a world-wide prevalence between 14-17%of "mast cell activation syndrome." While genetics and comorbid conditions areimportant in any symptom or disease process, the mast cell compartment feedsand grows off all the major environmental changes of the past 50 or so years. Thisis why the human body in the 21st century is in a low level state of"rejection," of the world. Most of these changes are irreversible, but thesituation is not hopeless. Understanding how the body changes itself inresponse to its environment will allow controlled desensitization to theenvironment. With a special focus on Allergy and Mast Cell Activation, the target audience would bePrimary Care providers, physician assistants, nurses, patients and family members ofthose with Allergic Di