title: Why did evolution give us allergies?
abstract: The questions of why allergies exist and why they are becoming more prevalent continue to puzzle immunologists. Recent research has uncovered a wealth of details and in the process grown an impenetrable hedge of acronyms around the issue, but the answers may be hidden elsewhere, in the ecology and evolution of our interactions with insects, worms and snakes. Michael Gross reports.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gross
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001181:Arthropods / Q000502:physiology; D005075:Biological Evolution; D006376:Helminths / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D006920:Hygiene; D006967:Hypersensitivity / Q000276:immunology*; D012911:Snakes / Q000502:physiology