Allergies: Nothing to sneeze at

Fridays Feast is having the day off today, so I thought I'd try a different meme today: Aloha Friday. All you have to do is post any question on your blog on a Friday, share your answer and sign Kailani's Mr. Linky. Then have fun answering the questions of fellow participants by visiting their blogs.

My question of the day is related to allergies. I used to be allergic to chocolate and shellfish. Thank God I outgrew the chocolate allergy; eating shellfish still causes me to break out with red, watery, itchy, swollen eyes (it's not pretty). But lately I've been having allergy attacks nearly every day. Actually, my whole family has been suffering (Alfie does get spring allergies but the kids don't have any allergies that we know of). Our theories regarding the cause range from our neighbor's jasmine tree to increased pollution to the spray that Bay Area counties are using to get rid of the apple moth infestation.

Come to think of it, nearly every family we know has some sort of allergy these days: peanuts, wheat, gluten, pollen, you name it. When I was growing up, we were the only family I knew that had any allergies at all. What's happening? Which bring me to my question:

Do you suffer from allergies? And have you noticed an increase in allergy suffering among the people you know in recent years? What do you suppose is the reason?