PMID- 26196592
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
DCOM- 20150723
LR  - 20181113
IS  - 1045-6767 (Print)
IS  - 1045-6767 (Linking)
VI  - 8
IP  - 1
DP  - 1997 Mar
TI  - The evolutionary context of chronic allergic conditions : The Hiwi of Venezuela.
PG  - 51-75
LID - 10.1007/s12110-997-1004-8 [doi]
AB  - The question of why populations with ecologies that resemble our evolutionary 
      past rarely experience allergic conditions such as asthma has intrigued many 
      biomedical scientists. Here we present descriptive data on the ecological context 
      of allergic sensitization among the Hiwi of southwestern Venezuela and suggest 
      reasons for why this and other lowland South American Indian groups do not 
      express the allergic response at levels seen in industrialized contexts. Allergic 
      sensitization among the Hiwi appears to be negligible. This absence occurs in the 
      context of high exposure to macroparasites (mainly hookworm), nutritional stress, 
      frequent and prolonged breastfeeding, low indoor allergen deposition, and few 
      hours spent per day indoors. We conclude that seeking unidimensional answers to 
      the question of why isolated human groups generally experience few allergic 
      conditions is potentially flawed because allergies are produced by a multifaceted 
      immunoglobulin E (IgE) system that responds in complex ways to the environmental 
      and behavioral exposures we examined. Instead, we propose a general model of 
      physiological trade-offs in energy allocation between production of IgE of 
      undefined specificity and production of allergen-specific IgE. In addition, we 
      consider the simultaneous effects that exposures such as nutritional stress, 
      allergen exposure, and breastfeeding may have on these trade-offs.
FAU - Hurtado, A M
AU  - Hurtado AM
AD  - Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 87131, Albuquerque, NM. 
      amhurtad@unm.edu.
FAU - Hill, K
AU  - Hill K
AD  - Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, 87131, Albuquerque, NM.
FAU - de Hurtado, I A
AU  - de Hurtado IA
AD  - Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Venezuela.
FAU - Rodriguez, S
AU  - Rodriguez S
AD  - Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Cientificas, Venezuela.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - United States
TA  - Hum Nat
JT  - Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.)
JID - 9010063
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Allergic sensitization
OT  - Asthma
OT  - Breastfeeding
OT  - Eosinophilia
OT  - Hematocrits
OT  - Hiwi
OT  - Nutritional stress
OT  - South American Indians
EDAT- 1997/03/01 00:00
MHDA- 1997/03/01 00:01
CRDT- 2015/07/22 06:00
PHST- 1996/06/18 00:00 [received]
PHST- 1996/08/12 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2015/07/22 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 1997/03/01 00:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 1997/03/01 00:01 [medline]
AID - 10.1007/s12110-997-1004-8 [pii]
AID - 10.1007/s12110-997-1004-8 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Hum Nat. 1997 Mar;8(1):51-75. doi: 10.1007/s12110-997-1004-8.