The Hygiene Hypothesis
In the West, and particularly in the U.S., we have become excessively, even compulsively, fearful of germs. A healthy respect for germs is good, and we need to focus on facilitating a cleaner environment for the elderly, as their immune systems weaken with age.
But children need a certain exposure to pathogens for the optimal development of their immune systems. A close friend of mine has been particularly blessed with a robust immune system. While each member of his family caught pertussis a few years ago, he did not get sick, despite the whooping cough being highly contagious. The same happened with a couple of variants of Covid 19. That, and he sleeps right between two of his five children. They have been camping out in Granville County on their land for three years since they lost their house in a house fire in February of 2019. He is sixty years old. I believe he has been blessed with such a strong immune system largely because he was not raised in a typical American household.
His father was a doctor and his mother a high school English and French teacher. They were aware of the need for pathogens even then, in the 1960s and 70s, and they raised their children on a farm without great care to sterilize the environments. As a doctor, his father was ahead of his time and stayed away from heavy use of antibiotics, but prescribed fresh air and water as the best treatment for cuts and scrapes.
Too, both parents were raised with their formative years in the Great Depression of the 1930s. Their parents were poor and frugal. Nothing was wasted. Everything that could be fixed was promptly repaired. If a piece of bread hit the floor, it was dusted off and eaten, with a clear exemplary lesson to the four children to do likewise and be therefore good stewards of the LORD Christ.
Melinda Beck calls for a balance in food on the floor, in this video:
Here is a quote from the Wall Street Journal, 1 Feb 2022:
Begin Quote:
The idea that exposure to some infectious agents is protective against immune-related disorders isn’t new and comes with significant scientific heft. The so-called hygiene hypothesis is constructed from epidemiologic evidence, laboratory studies and clinical trials that, put together, support the notion that an excessive emphasis on antisepsis is implicated in misalignments of the immune system that risk disease.
Allergic and autoimmune diseases are far less common in communities with less hygiene, and autoimmune disorders increase in children who migrate from areas with less emphasis on hygiene to areas with more emphasis. They are less common in agricultural communities, where exposure to dirt and animals is common, compared with neighboring communities with shared genetics but little farming. Children who attend daycare early in life—runny noses, colds and all—have less asthma and fewer allergies. Animal studies, laboratory experiments and small trials in humans all point in a similar direction: Avoiding exposure to some microbes prevents the immune system from training well and predisposes to autoimmune diseases.
The risk of untoward consequences from excessive hygiene is particularly striking for children. The immune system gets the most effective tuning during childhood, and reducing its ability to distinguish disease-causing invaders from benign targets is a common mechanism proposed for allergies, asthma and immune-mediated bowel diseases, among others. [End WSJ Quote]
2. With Covid, Stop Treating Children Like the Enemy:
The schools need to give them their best chance at a healthy future.
3. Dirtier Lives May Be Just the Medicine We Need
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