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Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

bbc.com

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Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#101

Post by kakacik »

markus_zhang wrote: post #67
INTPenis wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pollen allergies have definitely skyrocketed in Sweden. We used to be able to sit in an office and work all year without hearing people sniffle and sneeze. Now it's like an epidemic, at least half the office is affected.

I kinda suspect it was the Covid. I didn’t have allergic reactions until I was infected with Covid. I don’t have proof though.

Covid fucked with people in various, not easy to measure ways. Some effects went away (like losing smell and taste, but it took months for me), some... not so much.

When I get cold/sneezing (the usual non-flu winter sickness) I cough much more since covid, more thick sputum created in the lower part of the throat. Talked with few people around and they confirmed they feel similar effects.

Allergies could easily be another area where effects can be subtle but permanent in some individuals. My father's hair got almost completely white after he almost ended up on ventilation for example. We as family with 2 kids (back then babies) had covid at least 11-12 times so far (confirmed by tests, wife is a doctor), plus few other probably-but-not-tested. Most recent one last autumn was like immunity went to 0 again, was coughing away nasty stuff for another month. I am glad I just survived all that, some of that was mild and some was pretty harsh on body and mind.

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#102

Post by flohofwoe »

zeristor wrote: post #99
flohofwoe wrote: post #14

Hmm, most German forests are also vast monoculture 'tree farms' and have been for the last 250 years (also caused by large scale deforestation in the centuries before). In the Ore Mountains we also have those yellow clouds of pollen coming off spruce trees every few years, covering everything with a thin yellow dust layer, yet I'm not aware that the number of people with pollen allergies is exceptionally high (oth, m…

In Germany I understand the non-native trees in the warmer climate are succumbing to beetles, and dying out. I understand that they're being replanted by more native species.

Yes true, especially the Harz mountains currently look like a post-apocalyptic wasteland (also visible on Google Maps), it will take decades to regrow with more diverse and climate resistant tree types, but worth it (compared to reforesting with another layer of fast growing trees of the same type).

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#103

Post by PyWoody »

PyWoody wrote: post #42
pjc50 wrote: post #5

Japan being 68% forest is an astounding stat.

Maine is 89.46% [0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_cover_by_state_and_terr...

Sorry, I can't edit it now but I just meant it as a neat fact and not a comparison.

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#104

Post by flakiness »

goda90 wrote: post #92

>Every year, an area is selectively clear-cut, removing sugi, hinoki but also other invasive species like bamboo. Broadleaf trees are left, and with more sun coming through to the ground, they grow back, along with other new seedlings either planted by staff or brought by birds or animals. In other parts of the world, some plantation -> forest projects don't remove trees but instead pull them over and leave them as l…

Japanese sugi forests are too dense. I don't think they have the space to lay these logs down.

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#105

Post by kakacik »

Tangurena2 wrote: post #82
DANmode wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can go the other direction, too: exposure to moldy home environments gave me (now resolved) food sensitivities, dust allergies, pet-associated allergies, etc. You can definitely undertrain, or overwhelm, the immune system if not cautious!

Don't underestimate the amount of cockroach debris present in a modern home. There's a positive correlation between asthma and in-home roach population.

Maybe some plywood cheap old US homes full of holes or crevices, but here in Europe if you have cockroach infection and not blind or similarly disabled, you know it. They are not exactly hiding in the evening/night.

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#106

Post by Yeroc »

the_af wrote: post #85
INTPenis wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes timotej is my allergy as well. And I got it as an adult, in 2009. So 26 years without any allergies, then suddenly, one summer in Helsingborg, the air was thick with pollen. I remember the smell was like cheese doodles in the air, musty. Once I got back from an errand in the city my face was leaking, I walked to the pharmacy with blurry vision to get my first antihistamines. Ever since then every year june is a n…

Once you get sensitized, it gets worse every year, right? Since my teenage years I was mildly allergic to pollen, and now in my adulthood it seems to be getting progressively worse. Each spring is worse than the previous one, and the antihistamines do less effect (or so I subjectively feel).

That is the general pattern but not always. I never used to have allergies and then developed them a few years ago. Was very miserable for a couple months every year for about 5 years but they disappeared again a couple years ago. I tried a few things like taking a spoonful of local honey every day etc. Ultimately I don't know what made the difference sadly but I haven't been bothered by seasonal allergies for several years now.

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#107

Post by saltybytes »

I was surprised to not find anything about possible cures or treatments in the article.

I had bad allergies myself in my teenage years - unable to sleep for weeks - I finally sought help. The western medicine offers protein shots (similar treatment as to food allergies) but I heard good things about acupuncture. First, I was very skeptical about how needles could "help" with allergies. But about 2 months into the treatment (two sessions per week) the pollen season started. The air felt "heavy to breathe" but to my surprise I was not effected that year at all. After finishing the whole treatment I was allergy free for many years. Now I sometimes feel it on bad days with clouds of pollen hanging in humid air. My uneducated guess is, that my acupuncture treatment I received over 2 decades ago "wears off".

I wonder if others experienced similar or if I was a statistical outlier to a well shaped Gauss curve?

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#108

Post by markus_zhang »

kakacik wrote: post #101
markus_zhang wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kinda suspect it was the Covid. I didn’t have allergic reactions until I was infected with Covid. I don’t have proof though.

Covid fucked with people in various, not easy to measure ways. Some effects went away (like losing smell and taste, but it took months for me), some... not so much. When I get cold/sneezing (the usual non-flu winter sickness) I cough much more since covid, more thick sputum created in the lower part of the throat. Talked with few people around and they confirmed they feel similar effects. Allergies could easily be an…

I had exactly the same experience. After I contracted Covid, until last year, it usually took me 2 weeks to stop coughing after the other symptoms went away. I think what improved the situation is exercise. I started to sprint walk a lot since last year and so far I haven’t had any long cough since then.

My son also got asthma after Covid. But he also improved when he grew a bit older (now close to six). We still give him the pumps whenever he had a bad cold, though.

Hope you and your family get better. It is very nasty. It is not life threatening but threatens pretty much everything else.

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#109

Post by IAmBroom »

alsetmusic wrote: post #97

I was surprised to read that our allergies evolve, though perhaps I shouldn't have been. When I lived in the midwest of the USA, I hated mowing the lawn so much. I became a gunked-up mess with my sinuses packed with snot, regardless of antihistamines and (new at the time) allergy meds that presaged our present treatments. I'd lived in the Bay Area for one or two months before a neighbor in my apartment complex knocke…

"Evolve" doesn't well describe the very real possibility that you were/are more reactive to species popular in the Midwest, but not the Bay Area.

By "evolve", I thought you mean "change within the individual over their lifetime" - which also happens. I spent time in oxygen tents as a young child; I mostly suffer from (easily treated) sinus issues as an adult.

Also, our drugs have improved mightily, but that's obviously not relevant for an increase in allergies amongst the population (separate from the above meaning of "evolve").

Edit: I guess I'm not sure what you meant by the word.

Re: Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame

#110

Post by lazide »

flakiness wrote: post #104
goda90 wrote: post #92

>Every year, an area is selectively clear-cut, removing sugi, hinoki but also other invasive species like bamboo. Broadleaf trees are left, and with more sun coming through to the ground, they grow back, along with other new seedlings either planted by staff or brought by birds or animals. In other parts of the world, some plantation -> forest projects don't remove trees but instead pull them over and leave them as l…

Japanese sugi forests are too dense. I don't think they have the space to lay these logs down.

A historically common way to clear certain kinds of areas in the US is to drag anchor chains with giant bulldozers. May still work?
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