Too Clean? Fight Against Germs Fuels

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http://www.livescience.com/health/070914_too_clean.html

Too Clean? Fight Against Germs Fuels

Allergy Increase

By Jeanna Bryner,

LiveScience Staff Writer

posted: 14 September 2007 10:10 am ET

A dose of dirt could be the best medicine for preventing allergies in kids

who've never had them.

While avoiding excessive contact with germs can help prevent the spread of infections,

going overboard with cleanliness could be at least partly responsible for an

increase in allergies among children, mounting research suggests.

" We've developed a cleanlier lifestyle, and our bodies no longer need

to fight germs as much as they did in the past, " said Marc McMorris, a

pediatric allergist at the University of Michigan Health System. " As a

result, the immune system has shifted away from fighting infection to developing

more allergic tendencies. "

More than 50 percent of Americans ages 6 to 59 years are sensitive to at

least one allergen, according to a national survey conducted from 1988 to 1994

by the National Institutes of Health. That's two to five times higher than

rates found in a previous 1976 to 1980 survey.

Recent research has found evidence for the so-called hygiene hypothesis,

which explains how more sterile environments can lead to higher rates of

illness. For instance, scientists in Germany recently found children exposed to

farm animals (and the associated bacteria and other microbes hiding out there)

were about half as likely as other children to develop the autoimmune

illness Crohn's disease.

More animal helpers

Allergies are a reaction by the body's immune system to foreign, yet

generally innocuous, substances, including pollen, mold, animal dander, dust

and certain foods that it deems harmful. If your immune system has never or

rarely detected even the natural background level of such substances, it can go

haywire when contact does occur.

" Allergies are on the rise because our society has changed the way we

live, " McMorris said, adding that " as a result, people with allergies

are having children with others who have allergies, which in turn creates a

natural increase in the prevalence of allergies in our society."

In addition to exposure to farm animals, dogs and cats kept as pets could

also help children avoid developing allergies. A study published in a 2002

issue of JAMA concluded that children living in a house with two or

more dogs or cats during their first year of life were much less likely to

develop allergic diseases compared with children raised without pets.

" Epidemiology would suggest if there are 10 cats in the homes, [kids]

are less likely to develop allergies, " said Bruce Bochner, director of the

Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at Johns Hopkins School of

Medicine.

More research is needed, however, to pin down exactly what's going on.

Bochner said one flaw with these studies is that homes with pet-allergic kids

are not likely to have lots of pets.

The dirty truth

From the constant use of anti-bacterial soap for dish- and hand-washing

to air-tight seals around doors and windows, some modern homes have become

shrines to hygiene. Add vaccinations and antibiotics to the mix and the body's

immune system can get too much artificial reprieve from nature.

" The natural immune system does not have as much to do as it did 50

years ago, because we've increased our efforts to protect our children from

dirt and germs, " McMorris said in a statement released this month.

Plus, the atrophy of family size means children get exposed to fewer germs

than the more kid-filled homes of yesteryear. Families with three or more

children, a dynamic that was common decades ago, tend to have fewer allergies

as they are exposed to more bacteria- and virus-harboring siblings, McMorris

said.

 

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