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Early Exposure To Germs Has Lasting Benefits
ananyo writes "Exposure to germs in childhood is thought to help strengthen the immune system and protect children from developing allergies and asthma, but the pathways by which this occurs have been unclear. Now, researchers have identified a mechanism in mice that may explain the role of exposure to microbes in the development of asthma and ulcerative colitis, a common form of inflammatory bowel disease. The researchers show that in mice, exposure to microbes in early life can reduce the body's inventory of invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, which help to fight infection but can also turn on the body, causing a range of disorders such as asthma or inflammatory bowel disease (abstract). The study supports the 'hygiene hypothesis,' which contends that such auto-immune diseases are more common in the developed world where the prevalence of antibiotics and antibacterials reduce children's exposure to microbes."
All those bullies sticking my head in the toilet were just trying to help expose me to germs. I should send them a thank you note.
Humanity (or human like creatures) survived for several hundred thousand years without modern medicine. If the body was not capable of developing defenses to disease we wouldn't still be here.
Finding this hard to swallow personally. I was born with pneumonia and had chronic infections early in life. In my 20s I am still plagued by allergies, asthma and generally poor health despite generally good habits as far as diet, exercise, and hygiene. I cringe when I think about what kind of state I'd be in if I didn't.
The theory goes that it's too late for sloppy hygiene to help you much, now, but if you ate more dirt as a kid, you'd be healthier.
Most of my anecdotal observations in life tend tend to agree: life in a bubble isn't good for you, even if you never leave it.
Most of my anecdotal observations in life tend tend to agree: life in a bubble isn't good for you, even if you never leave it.
Ah, but the big questions remains unanswered: Does the basement count? Do Dorito bits count as dirt? Are keyboards a good source of antigens for the early immune system?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Getting sick isn't the point. In fact, it might be exposure to relatively harmless microbes that helps stave off auto-immune disorders. The problem is that antibacterials/antimicrobials kill everything, not just the bugs that pose a threat.
It's a good one, but there are several competing theories out there too. One of the best I've seen is the correlation between acetaminophen use in children and the development of asthma in children. It just so happens that clean, microbe-adverse developed nations have much more access to acetaminophen than dirty, unsanitized third world countries....
Light a fire for a man and he'll be warm for a day. Light a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
Only a few select sources of food are overly-infected with nasty things, specifically beef supplies (which are just horrible for you in general)
Most other things are completely safe eaten raw. That includes milk
I hate to break it to you, but milk and beef comes from the same filthy animal.