This is an aside that I can't resist.
A few months ago National Geographic did an article on allergies.
What the article essentially said (and I am really paraphrasing here) was
that allergies are unknown in undeveloped countries like Africa where there
is a huge problem with intestinal parasites. The article went on to say that
some scientists and reseachers are wondering if there is a link between
intestinal parasites and allergies....if, somehow, "worms" (Gross!) tend to
help prevent allergies.
I'll keep my seasonal hay fever, thank you.
I wonder if the colonists suffered from allergies when they got here.
DFM
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sunshine49" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 11:20 PM
Subject: Re: Slave Narrative for WPA Project
> Google only had 77,000 hits [of course I had to look it up!]; there are 2
> varieties in the Americas, they grow only in warm climates, thrive in
> loamy or sandy soil, require a certain amount of rainfall and warm temps,
> all such as are found in the south. It was thought that they were brought
> over with African slaves, as they are not found in northern Europe, but
> recent discoveries show they were here before European exploration. They
> do cause anemia in people with poor nutritional levels to begin with;
> well fed people can be asymptomatic. The worms also cause a leakage of
> protein in the gut, and while not fatal in themselves, they can cause
> death by secondary disease due to the weakened state of the person. They
> also lead to deficiencies in folic acid [which we have recently learned
> is vital to the development of healthy babies] and B12, which would only
> compound the anemia by making iron that much harder for the stomach to
> absorb. Nasty little critters any way you look at it.
>
> Nancy
>
> -------
> I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
>
> --Daniel Boone
>
>
>
> On Mar 1, 2007, at 10:37 PM, Sunshine49 wrote:
>
>> Interesting theory, thanks. I believe one effect of hookworms is anemia
>> as well. Not very good, when you don't have a rich diet to begin with.
>> It might explain the instances of pica in the south, women eating dirt,
>> etc., it's common with anemia to eat weird things in an effort to
>> alleviate it. I'd still love to know about the origins of hookworms, if
>> they came over from Europe, or if they weren't a problem with the
>> natives who had little in the way of animals living with them, unlike
>> the whites and later freed blacks. Google probably has 546,000 hits...
>>
>> Nancy
>>
>> -------
>> I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
>>
>> --Daniel Boone
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mar 1, 2007, at 9:32 PM, Anita L. Henderson wrote:
>>
>
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