Post by fretslider on Jun 28, 2011 14:14:03 GMT -5
I, and I'm sure most of you, have some small degree of experience of this phenomenon.
Put simply, the hygiene hypothesis is a hypothesis that states that a lack of early childhood exposure to infectious agents, symbiotic microorganisms (e.g., gut flora or probiotics), and parasites increases our susceptibility to allergic diseases by suppressing natural development of the immune system. Other diseases, such as the rise of autoimmune diseases and acute lymphoblastic leukemia in young people in the developed world, have also been linked to the hygiene hypothesis.
The hygiene hypothesis has been extensively investigated by immunologists and epidemiologists and has become an important theoretical framework for the study of allergic disorders. It is used to explain the increase in allergic diseases that has been seen since industrialization. For my money, however, de-industrialisation has not reversed the uplift. Work does not provide a solitary uniform environment. An office is a million miles away from the shop floor. The real answer lies in the formative years of childhood.
Ever dropped an ice lolly on the pavement, picked it up and said "ice kills germs"? I and everyone I knew did. The hygiene hypothesis has expanded from eczema and hay fever to include exposure to several varieties of microorganisms and parasites, with which humans coexisted throughout much of our evolutionary history, as necessary for balanced and regulated immune system development. As a kid I played on the (WWII) bomb sites in London. They and the slums weren't really redeveloped until the 60s and early 70s. The white heat of technology and all that.
Now me, I was always covered in mud and dirt and I don't have any allergies - apart from work. Both of my boys have allergies and I'm only too conscious of the changes I lived through and the differences there are between the generations. They are and always have been scrupulously clean unlike their filthy father. I had German measles and Mumps, Chickenpox and all the other kiddie things, not nice, but I and many others got through them. Sometimes some don't. My kids have had all the shots etc... and they haven't had the diseases.
In recent times, the development of hygienic practices, elimination of childhood diseases, antibiotics and effective medical care have diminished or eliminated exposure to these microorganisms and parasites during development. In more recent times, bacteria are beginning to evolve resistance to even last line of defence drugs like Vancomycin. We are going to see an awful lot more bacteria being labelled as superbugs - virtually beyond conventional treatment.
We have rather deluded ourselves that we can wave the antibiotic wand and its all aok. For humans to evolve their resistance to bacteria humans will die. You can't rush a pharmaceutical to market; in the first instance it’s phenomenally expensive, and it takes years. A healthy turnover is made on stock in trade drugs for a wide range of ailments - plus the boon of Viagra related compounds. Why bother with the (financial) risks?
There was a golden age when children could pick up unidentified objects in the street and shove them in their mouths largely unnoticed; when bathing involved the occasional scrub behind the ears whenever you were too slow to wriggle free of your mother's grip; and where snotty-nosed urchins mixed freely, coated in a paste of outside dirt.
I remember it well.
Put simply, the hygiene hypothesis is a hypothesis that states that a lack of early childhood exposure to infectious agents, symbiotic microorganisms (e.g., gut flora or probiotics), and parasites increases our susceptibility to allergic diseases by suppressing natural development of the immune system. Other diseases, such as the rise of autoimmune diseases and acute lymphoblastic leukemia in young people in the developed world, have also been linked to the hygiene hypothesis.
The hygiene hypothesis has been extensively investigated by immunologists and epidemiologists and has become an important theoretical framework for the study of allergic disorders. It is used to explain the increase in allergic diseases that has been seen since industrialization. For my money, however, de-industrialisation has not reversed the uplift. Work does not provide a solitary uniform environment. An office is a million miles away from the shop floor. The real answer lies in the formative years of childhood.
Ever dropped an ice lolly on the pavement, picked it up and said "ice kills germs"? I and everyone I knew did. The hygiene hypothesis has expanded from eczema and hay fever to include exposure to several varieties of microorganisms and parasites, with which humans coexisted throughout much of our evolutionary history, as necessary for balanced and regulated immune system development. As a kid I played on the (WWII) bomb sites in London. They and the slums weren't really redeveloped until the 60s and early 70s. The white heat of technology and all that.
Now me, I was always covered in mud and dirt and I don't have any allergies - apart from work. Both of my boys have allergies and I'm only too conscious of the changes I lived through and the differences there are between the generations. They are and always have been scrupulously clean unlike their filthy father. I had German measles and Mumps, Chickenpox and all the other kiddie things, not nice, but I and many others got through them. Sometimes some don't. My kids have had all the shots etc... and they haven't had the diseases.
In recent times, the development of hygienic practices, elimination of childhood diseases, antibiotics and effective medical care have diminished or eliminated exposure to these microorganisms and parasites during development. In more recent times, bacteria are beginning to evolve resistance to even last line of defence drugs like Vancomycin. We are going to see an awful lot more bacteria being labelled as superbugs - virtually beyond conventional treatment.
We have rather deluded ourselves that we can wave the antibiotic wand and its all aok. For humans to evolve their resistance to bacteria humans will die. You can't rush a pharmaceutical to market; in the first instance it’s phenomenally expensive, and it takes years. A healthy turnover is made on stock in trade drugs for a wide range of ailments - plus the boon of Viagra related compounds. Why bother with the (financial) risks?
There was a golden age when children could pick up unidentified objects in the street and shove them in their mouths largely unnoticed; when bathing involved the occasional scrub behind the ears whenever you were too slow to wriggle free of your mother's grip; and where snotty-nosed urchins mixed freely, coated in a paste of outside dirt.
I remember it well.