I started to read this one, but the style in which it was written was just not for me. I read academic/medical papers regularly for work and often enjoy essay collections and memoirs, but this didn't grab my attention or work for me.

I expected more from this book, to be honest. It’s a deep dive into the history of allergies and their (conventional western medicine) treatments, along with some theories about why they have skyrocketed and some pontificating about predatory pharmaceutical companies, difficulties for poor people and people of color in getting treatment and safe foods, stigmas about people with allergies and so on.

I’m a mother of five, and my older kids have been diagnosed with multiple allergies. This is a topic I’ve researched for years and I have many friends in the same boat. Three of my kids are allergic to gluten, and they’ll need to be careful to avoid it for life. That said, when they were younger two of my kids were diagnosed with severe allergies to handfuls of other things— cats, dogs, grass, birch pollen, peanuts and more. The allergist told me that my daughter was so highly allergic to dust that he was amazed she could breathe at all, and that my son and daughter would need two daily medicines for the rest of their lives. I was told to buy a plastic mattress protector and throw away all of my daughter‘s stuffed animals, but the protector smelled so strongly of chemicals even after hanging it on the clothesline for days that I couldn’t bear the thought of her little face breathing that in all night every night and I didn’t do it. Instead, I changed our diet and got rid of chemicals and irritants. I avoided buying anything new that would be steeped in flame retardants and formaldehyde. I got rid of perfumes and plastics and bought and made organic food from scratch (we lived at the poverty line, it wasn’t easy). And their allergies disappeared. Those kids are grown now and have no allergies (other than gluten for one, who ironically was not diagnosed with a gluten allergy by that original doctor and was diagnosed years later). They spend copious amounts of time outside every season of the year and have dogs and cats and dusty houses.

The only people I know who have successfully managed or eliminated their allergies or their kids‘ allergies and eczema have all done it with nontraditional methods. They are all people I consider highly intelligent and I’ve seen it myself. This author has the standard line of studies show that local honey doesn’t treat seasonal allergies and there are no alternative treatments that work. I know someone who used NAET and her highly allergic son (to multiple things) was no longer allergic. It sounds nuts to me too but she points out that nothing else worked for him and if it was placebo he didn’t have a placebo effect with anything else, and he’s grown now and they never returned. I don’t know. I do know that diet and lifestyle changes eliminated my children’s severe environmental allergies, because I saw it. And my youngest kids were born into our new environment and lifestyle and never showed signs at all.

There’s also no talk about things science has confirmed, like the rate of asthma is less than half the modern rate in kids with diverse plant life in their backyards (source: Never Home Alone, by a scientist who has led research around the world).

It kind of feels like modern western doctors live in an echo chamber and they never talk to anyone outside of it so they don’t even consider that there could be other answers. This author says she talked to people who believe alternative treatments worked for their allergies, but she basically says they are wrong. She admits that modern medicine hasn’t changed much in nearly a century and mostly doesn’t offer anything, so in the end this is a book about what western medicine believed a hundred years ago and now, with very little help or hope.

The world is changing, and I think that’s the key to how to turn around the allergy epidemic. Unfortunately, despite the title that’s not a direction this book went into.

I read a digital copy of this book via netgalley.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Allergic was a fascinating look at the prevailing theories on why allergies and allergic diseases are becoming more prevalent in our modern world. It was intriguing, thought-provoking, and at times, terrifying. I liked how MacPhail also examined the patient perspective and why they make treatment decisions that seem counter-intuitive to some of their providers. I was also very glad that she included the socioeconomic issues facing these allergy sufferers. I would recommend this book to my patient’s parents and colleagues.

An excellent book on a subject that touches so many lives. Whether you have chronic or seasonal allergies, you want relief as quickly as possible with as few side effects as possible. Even after so many years as an allergy sufferer who spends money and time to reduce symptoms, I learned many facts that will help me. It would be an excellent book for anyone who suffers as I do.

This was a fantastic and in depth book all about allergies. I learned a ton and this book was a quick and straightforward read. Definitely a good read for anyone who suffers from allergies or knows someone else who does.

I love reading scientific books about common diseases, so this was right up my alley. The author uses proper medical terminology throughout the book to share her family history with allergies without making medical claims or trying to be a doctor. She also mentions that there is a rise in allergies because of the American obesity epidemic; many people are susceptible to food allergies because of poor, unhealthy eating habits.

This author does a fantastic job about what has helped her be the best advocate with her own history of allergies. She obviously did a lot of research on the topic and presented it well in this book. A recommended book on the subject of allergies.

Thanks to NetGalley, Theresa MacPhail and Random House Publishing Group Random House division for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Already available

A highly relevant title, cover, and topic. This is a popular topic in our community and will appeal to many of our library patrons. The cover art is also lovely and appealing.

Exploring allergies - what causes them, why some get them, how to treat them (which is so challenging), and escalation of new ones that continue to baffle the world. This book runs the gamut and opens up the complex and painstaking art of figuring out how to treat allergies, many of which continue to be tested and solutions found. I felt the first third of the book challenging to get through - it was a bit “ploddy” and dry. Unlike Ed Yong who makes complex information understandable, interesting, and easy to digest, I found my eyes getting crossed here. It got better as the book went on and I started to find my pace and interest growing. I’m glad I stuck with it. Overall, I learned a lot about allergies and how so much is yet a mystery, with no definitive proven direct cause/effect for many cases, but facts pointing to strong causes. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Too wordy (probably trying to make length) and information that did not need to be a full book. Thank you.

An estimated 235 million people worldwide suffer from asthma. Globally, 240 to 550 million people may suffer from a food allergy. Drug allergy may affect up to 10 percent of the world’s population and up to 20 percent of all hospitalized patients worldwide.

These are just some of the mind-boggling statistics I learned from this book. Although allergies are becoming more common, they are still shrouded in mystery. Why do they happen? How can you test for them? Is there any treatment? The author seeks answers to these and many other questions, drawing on the latest scientific discoveries and talking to specialists.

I think this book will be of interest to people who enjoy reading about medicine–and, of course, to so many of us who suffer from allergies.

Thanks to the publisher, Random House, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

It seems like pretty much everyone knows someone with an allergy or has one themselves these days, which is not even including the sheer number of people who have some type of non-allergic sensitivity. But why does this happen? What is it about our environments that cause reactions ranging from mild irritations to potentially deadly anaphylaxis?

Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of answers. Allergic paints a somewhat grim picture of how so many different environmental variables contribute to allergies, the limitations of currently available tests and treatments, how corporate greed limits access to these life-saving treatments, and ultimately just how little we know about allergies.

This book taught me a lot about the history and current state of allergy science. Despite being somewhat overwhelmed by just how little we know about allergies, I finished the book being somewhat optimistic in science continuing to develop to improve the lives of those with existing allergies and for more research to help us better understand what actions can be taken to help prevent allergies from developing in the first place.

This was an incredibly well-researched and well-written book about such a fascinating and important topic. Highly recommend!

A fascinating and expertly researched exploration of allergies. I especially enjoyed the interviews with allergy sufferers and experts. I'm an allergy sufferer and enjoyed learning more about this topic.

I've had allergies all my life, and for some reason, I thought that would make this book an interesting read. The fact is, I have almost zero interest in medicine. And that's what the book seems to be about—how the body reacts to allergens. Ultimately, I don't find that interesting enough to read a long book on the subject. I think it's intended for a lay audience, but the writing style isn't compelling enough for a lay audience. DNF.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

The description often posted with Theresa MacPhail's Allergic ends with: "This is the story of allergies: what they are, why we have them, and what that might mean about the fate of humanity in a rapidly changing world." This seems to me a very appropriate summary of what this book covers—and covers very well.

MacPhail draws on extensive input from past medical publications, studies, and interviews with current medical, other specialists and patients, weaving a very readable collection of stories into a history of many aspects of allergies in humans. From the various types of allergies, to the medical tests to detect and identify them, to management and treatment options; how they've all evolved over time, how they all fell (and continue to fall) short, some promising recent developments, and how frustratingly elusive a true understanding of allergies continues to be.

This story is necessarily incomplete, as a full understanding of allergies and how to cure them is still nowhere in sight, but it is quite a story, sure to engage those interested in the human immune system and the ways in which it can go haywire on us, and perhaps useful background to those navigating the experience itself.

Note that this is not (and does not claim to be) a guide to treating and living better with allergies. This is a history of human understanding of allergy conditions, a "biography of allergies" as a quote on the cover puts it. So don't expect the former and then knock it for failing to deliver what it isn't. For what it is, it delivers quite well.

I really appreciated the level of detail in this book. It's an interesting topic that seems to becoming more and more complicated. I went to university of immunology so I was a bit worried that this one would be slightly too surface level for me to enjoy or learn something new, but I thought MacPhail strikes a good balance of information and explanation.

2.5 stars

This is a sort of dry prose highlighting some of the history of allergies by a medical anthropologist. While I found some points interesting, it jumps around a lot; repeating some information and contradicting other points. One of the first examples has a case where the author tries to highlight the patient is not allergic to something because the skin test came back negative. Moments later we go on the authors allergy journey where she literally has a negative skin test but has allergies, it just presents different. Opening the book this way made me just take everything with a grain of salt, especially when similar contradictions came up. It also is pretty US centric, and while the scope of “allergies” especially a book trying to cover history is broad, I think it would have been better served picking a specific focus and sticking with that to not have a sort of unbalanced, skipping around book. Parts of the history were well researched and interesting, so if that interests you I would give it a try. If you like a more straightforward and personally connected nonfiction perhaps skip this one.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting dive into a subject I didn't know much about, but I felt like the author included a bit too much for the layperson. I really enjoyed it however. I definitely look at allergies differently now. I did skim a few sections, though.

Who isn't looking for a tome on the history of allergies? This was crazy-interesting, exactly what I want in a nonfiction medical book.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I definitely think this is a timely book as allergies are such a major cause of illness. I appreciated the dialogue about autoimmune disorders. This isn't a book that will fix the systemic concerns that exist regarding allergies and health. The author presents a unique standpoint and it is a good read.

Allergic: How Our Immune System Reacts to a Changing World
By Theresa MacPhail

It’s likely that you or someone you know has an allergy. I personally suffer from season allergies and eczema, a skin allergy.

We are not alone. In fact, the author of the book was surprised by the number of people who suffer with the malady. “Approximately 40% of the entire human population already has some form of allergic condition.” That’s a lot of people!

But just what is an allergy? One definition: “A damaging immune response by the body to a substance, especially pollen, fur, a particular food, or dust, to which it has become hypersensitive.” A simpler definition: “Allergy occurs when a person reacts to substances in the environment that are harmless to most people. These substances are known as ‘allergens’ and are found in dust mites, pets, pollen, insects, ticks, moulds, foods and some medications.” No matter the definition, having an allergy is no fun.

The author, Theresa MacPhail, has a personal reason for her quest to discover all about allergies: her father died because of an anaphylactic shock to a bee sting. She is also an allergy sufferer herself and that led her to talk to various experts on allergies and the immune system.

This book, Allergic: How Our Immune System Reacts to a Changing World, is not a “living with your allergy” guide. Rather, it focuses on what allergies are, the history of their discovery, and the future of allergy treatments.

As someone who appreciates medical history, I really enjoyed the more historical aspects but also, as I suffer from allergies, I was appreciative of the details she went into as to just what allergies are and the various treatments.

I didn’t find this book a particularly difficult read, but it is a long book because the author makes a point of discussing the subject in great detail.

I’d recommend Allergic: How Our Immune System Reacts to a Changing World to anyone interested in the medical history of allergies or who, like me, has allergies and wants a better understanding of them. I gained a greater appreciation of the subject, even though it personally causes me great discomfort during allergy season.

4/5 stars

[Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the advanced ebook copy in exchange for my honest and objective opinion which I have given here.]