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Exposure to Wide Variety of Microbes May Reduce Allergies
sciencehabit writes "A new study reveals that people who grow up in more rural environments are less likely to develop allergies. The reason may be that environments rich with species harbor more friendly microbes, which colonize our bodies and protect against inflammatory disorders."
From the article: "To test whether or not biodiversity does indeed create a shield against such conditions, the team investigated the microbial diversity of 118 teenagers. The study participants, who had lived in the same houses their whole lives, were chosen at random from a 100-by-150-kilometer block in eastern Finland. Some kids lived on rural, isolated farms, while others lived in larger towns. ... surveyed all of the types of plants growing around the adolescents' homes. The participants were part of a separate long-term allergy study, so the researchers took advantage of that data to investigate the connection between biodiversity and allergies. ... Whether there is just something special about Finland's native plants or whether this finding can be applied around the world is still an open question, Hanski says. 'Many research groups worldwide could easily attain these data from their study populations, and then we'd know how general these results might be.'"
Stupid scientists. All they can come up with are theories. I've got your theory RIGHT HERE!
The CB App. What's your 20?
Are also less likely to come into contact with carcinogens in their food, air and water.
Users... the only thing keeping 1st level support from being the bottom feeders.
Explains why everyone in Amerika has one or the other food allergy, while they are pretty rare in India
We dont need ban peanuts,etc from schools/cities,etc. the allergies arent so extreme(or maybe those with alleriges die off pretty soon)
Hardly news, it's been reported many times over the last few years that research indicates our overly sterile environment is causing problems with alergies, asthsma etc. Heck, even our grandparanents knew this with old wives tales about eating dirt to make you healthy. A collegue from India tells me they have a ceremony involving putting some mud or something in a babies mouth to encourage a healthy defence mechanism.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
It has already been shown that the children growing in "dirtier" surroundings develop less allergies: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1868862/ . This study shows that there is a correlation between flora diversity near home and allergy rates with people growing up nearby each other.
Clearly the human body sets strict targets for pathogens identified and the immune system is pushed to find enough pathogens, even finding subversive and insurgents among friendly substances, even in itself, if that is what is required to meet the targets.
We see the same thing in the operation of government and security forces. We see similar bad behaviour as education and health systems struggle to meet centrally set targets and commence a path of undesirable behaviour in order to meet the target and obtain the incentive.
blog.sam.liddicott.com
Thanks Unknown Lamer for actually doing some editing on the summary and providing useful information. Keep it up.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
If you have allergies, it is a sign that your immune system is doing exactly what nature intended.
People with allergies will very likely be less suscebtible to viruses, bacteria, fungi and protozoa.
I have hayfever (allergy), my gf doesn't. She get's flue infections every year. I havn't had one in 4 years...
http://news.yale.edu/2012/04/25/why-hay-fever-may-be-good-sign
I have hayfever (allergy), my gf doesn't. She get's flue infections every year. I havn't had one in 4 years...
I'm an amateur "chimney sweep" and wish to offer my services.
When I was a child, I was spending weekends and summers in the countryside, eating dirt, ants and flowers, and for some "misterious" reason I was the only kid in my classroom who didn't have any allergy! When I had a kid myself, I was also taking him to the countryside regularly and now he's 26 and also 100% allergy-free. Genetics? I doubt it: his mother, raised 100% in city, is allergic to almost any known allergen out there! Also, discussing the matter with several friends, we noticed the same: take your kids to the Great Outdoors regularly, and they'll be allergy-free; keep them in the city, and expect them to spend springs looking like Rudolph, Santa's reindeer.
I swear, sometimes it seems like she's got every allergy imaginable - food allergies, pollen allergies, animal dander, dust, you name it. So whatever biodiversity existed on her parents' rural farm, it doesn't seem to have done her good, at any rate.
But, still - it would be interesting to see a more global analysis done to verify whether this holds up world-wide. For all we know, Finland might be special because the pollen granules immediately get coated with ice as soon as they leave the plant...
#DeleteChrome
I grew up in the middle of nowhere farmland and it's easier to count the trees and weeds I'm not allergic to than it is to count the ones I am.
My sister is a child nurse who visits young families at their homes to give advice and check on the babies. The "lower classes" live of junk food and use cheap stuff, with plenty of cheap perfumes, insecticides and random chemical crap in their household. Their children suffer from obesity, and even vitamin deficiencies. But NEVER allergies. The rich families with cleaning ladies twice a week, bio-detergents and balanced organic diets however...
I used to work for a factory which made a protein you could get allergic to, so the staff was closely monitored. We had lab technicians who did DNA analyses on nanograms of the stuff, and factory operators who were swimming in tons of the crap. Guess where most allergies occured...
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
Allergies are the body reacting to what it believes are intrusions. They are less likely to occur in people who have been exposed to actual parasites, because the body has a real intrusion to compare it to. Much like a dog that gets overexcited and barks and jumps up against the screen door every time the mailman comes by, the body thinks it is fending off an invader. This is why continued exposure to an allergen reduces the allergy, while occasional brief exposure increases it. This study has in fact found the correct result that a "dirtier" environment leads to fewer allergies, but they have completely missed on the reason why.
You mean that magical thing called the immune system that sets its sensitivity based on external and internal attacks constantly?
Like pretty much any other part of the body does?
Naww. Stop it. You're making stuff up.
It is only recently us morons have been getting all these new diseases because our overly sterile environments.
The body never evolved to live like this.
The body NEEDS other lifeforms to actually get a grip and know what is what.
You take those away, you are in for a world of pain.
People put it down to "ooo its all them chemicaaals in them foods you eat", nonsense, the chemicals limits are very well defined. It is the lack of rawness in the food we eat.
Raw food isn't a problem anymore outside of those seriously rare cases where something like Foot & Mouth breaks out. Fact: if you eat it, you will die regardless, there is no cure, nor a reliable way to clean any foods of things like that. Just one. Just one and you are screwed.
The reason "people are weak against [insert ineffection X]" as an adult is very specifically because they got said infection as an adult.
The immune system gets weaker with age. If you already had a narrow immune system as a child, you are screeewed when you grow up.
Hell man, this is biology 101. Even normal people know this. What with all the measles parties and even flu. (but stupidly some people done this with swine flu when that was a whole other ballgame)
So, yes, bringing your kid up in a bubble is bad. Stop doing it.
Let them eat the flowers. Worms? Well, they are tasty, they supply quite a bit of the nutrients that plants absorb and animals eat, eat up Timmy!
Just make sure they don't eat something bad. Don't be careless, but don't be nazi camp instructor either.
for the reasons cited in other posts, plus the demographics of city dwellers would be different. Could be that urbanites would include poorer (weaker immune systems from lesser pre and post-natal health, poor diets, more crowding/exposure to communicable diseases) people, as well as "nerd" professionals who seem to have a higher incidence of physical limitations (poor eyesight, sedentary jobs, weak constitutions) and thus not really be an element of environmental exposures. Just demographics.
www.chihuahuarescue.com- Help to end dog abuse, abandonment and cruelty
That's how I cured my cat allergies. I couldn't even stand to see a picture of one. So I got one... It was hell for a couple of weeks. Now, 16 years later, no reaction whatsoever unless she scratches or bites me. Even other cats have almost no effect on me now. If you always sterilize, remove germs and ultra-clean everything, of course your body won't know what to fight.
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
I refuse to use it because after we kill off the weakest 99% of bacteria, that 1% that survived will probably kill us all.
And yes, I am aware that the plural of anecdote is not data.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
The products of internal combustion are biologically active and obviously more dense in urban areas. Dirt may not end up being as protective as the electric drivetrain.
If you have a theory that explains the observations better than the theories that stupid scientists came up with, may we see it?
Or maybe their parents didn't have allergies so they moved out into a rural area. That's something I'd never do when I get married because I have allergies.
I had allergies since before I was 1 year old so sorry, it's still extremely genetic.
I grew up at small farm. We had some cows, pigs etc.
For about 30 years of work history, I have been on sick leave for about one week all together. I get minor cold maybe once a year, but no fever.
Antecedal Evidence, myself. I grew up in a more rural area and did spend a lot of time outside as a kid with my two brothers. I was the one who played in the compost (grass/leaves) heap the most, eventually I got sick and broke out in hives. Now, I'm allergic to penicillin and the only one in the family with seasonal allergies.
I was allergic to all kinds of nuts. I have lived all over Africa and no doubt been exposed to countless microbes, I am now allergy free. Pistachios used to be the worst, I couldn't even lick them or my throat would swell up. I now eat them by the bag. There is truth to this, our immune systems were not meant to be exposed to an environment soaked in bleach and disinfectant.
I think a lot of this is "provable" with anecdotal evidence, but I think there is something about allowing people to get sick or exposed to germs...we live in a world where people are afraid of germs and sickness and want to drop an antibiotic at the first sign of illness, bacterial or not. I currently live in a country where antibiotics can be gotten at pharmacies without a prescription. When people start to cough or otherwise display symptoms of being sick the first recourse is an antibiotic; doctors even will prescribe antibiotics when the symptoms point towards virus, just to make induce a placebo effect and make sure their patient feels cared for.
Anecdotal evidence...I grew up in the country and was exposed to a lot of "pathogens". My mother was a school nurse (likely bringing some of her work home with her) and just being outside in the woods, going to the bathroom, climbing trees, swimming, stick fighting, making forts, etc...all without washing hands. I never had allergies as a child and the only time I get sick in Beirut is when I am exposed to an extreme amount of pollution or the strange pollen from the pine trees here that plagues nearly everyone about once a year. I am even tolerant of something called the spring worm (caterpillar) that has feces and body hairs that are extremely irritating.
Our bodies are stronger than we give them credit for and we need to stop being a nation/world of hypochondriacs. Its nice that there seems to be some serious study on this issue. From personal experience I seem to see that the people who are the sickest are those that were sheltered the most growing up.
--- b2b.mallaidh.org | www.mallaidh.org | www.kidsalive.org/article/kahlil-pfaff/
I used to have hay fever, pollen fever, even pollen from trees - kleenex wasn't enough - I'd go through rolls of paper towels, gobs of dristdan nasal spray, lots of anti-histamines, unable to sleep because I couldn't breathe ... nothing really worked.
I was also allergic to dogs and cats - so I got a dog. Two months of absolute hell, 24/7, because he went with me everywhere ... then one day, it all just stopped. It's been almost two decades with no allergies to dogs, most cats (there was one who could stillmake my eyes water, for some reason) ... no hay fever or pollen allergies whatsoever ...
Our systems evolved in an environment where they have to distinguish between pathogens that can harm you, and the innocuous stuff like pollen. They aren't all that good at doing the job when there aren't any nasties to "train" against.
Let's call it what it is, Anti-Social Media.
I had a allergy screening done in 2008 while living in Silicon Valley and scored 4's (the highest allergic reaction on the test being used) on almost every pollen and cats, which we all know are evil. After moving out into the farmlands of Illinois i've never missed a day of work due to allergies and only have to take an allergy pill 3-5 days a year compared to 3-5 weeks a year that I did in California. There's a lot more pollen around here but it barely makes me sneeze any more.
Unfortunately, cats are still evil and nothing can stop them from trying to murder my sinuses.
These observational studies did not establish the direction of causation (assuming it is causal). It could be that people who do not have allergies are attracted to (or remain) in farming, while those who are allergic take jobs in the city. I did a report on this in grad school.
There is also a lot of evidence that parasites are a big part of the equation. Researchers have been able to turn allergies off and on by giving volunteers tape worms then killing off the worms. The theory, supported by biochemical analysis, is that our immune system and parasites have co-evolved such that our immune system is geared to over react and worms produce moderating factors. Take away worms and our systems are out of balance.
Creepy and disgusting and I don't recommend it, but still interesting stuff. I couldn't find the original articles I read, but did find this link: http://autoimmunetherapies.com/helminthic_therapy_news.html
Does this permit me to gloat to others that I don't use soap when washing my hands?
A very good read about this is Good Germs, Bad Germs
A new study reveals that people still don't understand that correlation does not imply causation.
So far nearly all the posts have been backing the clean hypothesis. My story is different. I grew up in a semi-rural suburb where I played outside a lot and our family always had dogs and for a while some parakeets as well. I used to catch crayfish and frogs and turtles and snakes and keep them as pets for a while.
I had severe allergies including asthma since I was maybe 6 or 7. It was around that time that I started taking allergy shots (immunotherapy). I took them for at least a few years I think with minimal to no change in the severity of my allergies.
From a very young age I grew up having to carry an inhaler with me everywhere and not being able to find it when I couldn't breathe was truly awful. Even now, in my 40s, I cannot sleep through the night without waking up because I'm not getting enough oxygen. This is despite the fact that I take large doses of inhaled corticosteroids (budesonide).
I've always been highly allergic to cats, but in my late teen years I became fascinated by them and decided to try to keep one. So I bought an 8 week old kitten and kept it for about a year before I gave up and finally gave her away. The reason I was able to keep the cat for so long was that I would bathe her at least once a week. Sometimes twice a week. Kittens are also known to be less allergenic than adult cats. I even tried one more time with a pure bred Devon Rex kitten and it did seem to make a significant difference, but I had to eventually sell her as well. Keeping a cat for an extended period of time did not seem to cure my allergies to them. It may have lessened them a little, but it's hard to say.
As an adult I have mainly kept parrots and an environment with birds isn't the cleanest one either. There was no shortage of down or feathers. I owned parrots for many years. I am only slightly allergic to them, but I am allergic to them and keeping them for years didn't change that. I also tend to live in a dirty environment with lots of dust and it hasn't improved my allergies. In fact over time my allergies seem to have been getting worse and worse.
My sister grew up in the same environment as I and she has never had any allergies. Not even hay fever. So I think congratulating ourselves that we have shown clean environments to be the cause of allergies is a bit premature.
OTOH there is this guy. He went to Cameroon to infect himself with hookworms and miraculously it seems to have worked for him. Based on my own experience, I think we are on the right track with the clean hypothesis, but we aren't there yet. I think the causes will eventually be shown to be a genetic predisposition to an overachieving immune system that makes you more likely to develop some kind of autoimmune disorder in your life combined with some specific triggers. Where I live now is certainly no more 'clean' in terms of dust and dirt than most of the homes I have visited in very poor countries. In fact I think it is less clean. I am not referring to huts with a dirt floor. I've never been inside one of those. I mean the regular housing in which average people live in the poor countries where I've lived.
I'm thinking in terms of some specific things like not washing your hands before eating. I have nearly always washed my hands before I touched food. In fact I probably started doing that around the same time that I developed allergies as a young kid. Clean water may be another trigger. In the poor countries I lived the water supply was not 100% clean all the time. Some people would always boil the water they used for drinking, but almost no one would use purified/boiled water for things like washing vegetables and dishes or tooth brushing or showering.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
I'm pretty sure that the rural area I grew up in was over-stimulating my allergic reactions. And when given skin tests I would start to react to everything. It was so bad that doctors were making cocktails of allergy shots to try and reduce my reactions to things. But after years it made zero difference.
Once I moved away from the area and into a city (as an adult), I suddenly started getting better. I quit getting ear infections.