A Small Price to Pay

The allergies that have afflicted your humble observer all his life may have had a beneficial side effect:

A new study......found that people with asthma, nasal allergies and other common allergic conditions had a significantly reduced risk of developing head and neck cancers. [snip]

Allergies usually result from an overactive immune function that may detect and eradicate malignant cells from the body, researchers said. Allergy proteins known as IgE could also have anti-tumor properties, they said.

Those youthful sneezing jags in retrospect were a small price to pay for reduced cancer risk. The allergy gene, otherwise the source of much physical misery and an apparent detriment to its host, might have been passed on for a good reason.