Y'all ever notice that when people say “There were never that many X people before!!!” X people almost always seem to be Housebound due to Lack of Accessibility or Chance of Severe Illness, Unrepresented because no one Put A Name to the Demographic, Oppressed with Physical Violence and Societal Ostracization, or straight up fucking Dead?? Just me?
on top of all that, people might not have come into contact with the things they’re allergic to in the past. or not as much. how would a European person with a peanut allergy have ever encountered the things before American colonization? one of my friends is very allergic to bell peppers, but her Scottish ancestors c. 1700 would probably never see one in their lives. we often have much more diverse diets nowadays
(if it was a mild-moderate enough allergy, they might also just call it an “intolerance” and avoid the thing in question as much as possible. they might not have known why it got them sick, but they could definitely put two and two together)
My grandfather, much like me, developed an allergy to bananas in childhood and whereas my family went “Well that’s a bummer. Guess we’re done with bananas now as a household” my grandfather’s mother used to make him eat bananas in front of her friends so they could laugh at his lips swelling up. Stuff like that used to be more common. Instead of viewing a medical problem as something we’re working on together as a family it was often seen as a failing of the child. What makes you think someone would talk about their medical issues casually if even having one is seen as a weakness? I talk openly about my problems when appropriate for the situation, as do most people I know. But society wasn’t always open to that. Many parts of society still aren’t. Like only 50 years ago asthma was seen as a mental illness. Destigmatization of certain illnesses makes those illnesses seem more common than they used to be when almost everyone had them this whole time.
