Honey, eat your dirt

[Praxius]

Honey, eat your dirt

Parents know that children should eat more fruits and vegetables, but probably don't know that there's something else missing from their kids' diets: dirt. No, that's not a typo. Children need to eat a little dirt now and then to develop healthy immune systems. Problem is, in many countries, people have become too clean for their own good.

In recent years, a greater percentage of children in developed nations have developed allergies or other immune system disorders, such as asthma. In October, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that some three million American children have food or digestive allergies, an 18-per-cent increase from the decade before. In the mid-1990s, 11 per cent of Canadian children aged 11 and younger suffered from asthma. But by 2001, nearly 70,000 more had been diagnosed with the chronic condition, pushing that percentage up to 13 per cent.

There is a growing body of evidence that suggests this is due to excessive hygiene --the old too-much-of-a-good-thing problem. British epidemiologist David P. Strachan first suspected that cleanliness could lead to illness in 1989, dubbing his idea "the hygiene hypothesis."

In her new book Why Dirt is Good, immunology expert Mary Ruebush explains how recent research is proving Strachan's hypothesis. A baby's immune system is like a computer that hasn't been programmed. It needs to practise responding to bacteria and viruses and other things found in dirt to learn what it should fight and what it should ignore. It's not an evolutionary mistake that young children, regardless of what their parents tell them, keep putting icky things in their mouths.

Overall, of course, improved hygiene standards have been a very good thing. Considering that 80 per cent of the diseases in the world still stem from water contamination, excessive cleanliness is a problem many countries can only dream of having. Sanitation is so important, in fact, that the British Medical Journal last year awarded it a rather lofty title: best medical invention ever.

Still, a generation of children with poorly developed immune systems is not so minor a problem that it doesn't deserve attention. Scientists may one day develop a vaccine to kick-start young immune systems -- something that will mimic the positive effects of soil-borne stimulants -- but what are parents to do in the meantime? Sprinkle a little topsoil on the morning oatmeal? Toss a teaspoon of gravel into the baby's bottle?

Fortunately, parents don't have to do more of anything. They should just do less of some things. For instance, they should use fewer antibacterial products. Soap and water is all you need to clean dirty hands, immunology experts say, and not all bacteria are bad. The demonization of bacteria is largely a marketing ploy.

Companies that sell antibacterial soaps and cleaners have exploited people's fear of germs to create a market for products that needn't exist.

Parents should also just relax a tad -- allow kids to walk around outside barefoot, play in the dirt, even pet the occasional mangy-looking dog. These are things children enjoy doing anyway. Hygiene-obsessed parents have good intentions, but they aren't doing their children any favours by teaching them that "dirt" is a dirty word.

I knew this for years... but I suppose some don't.... how many here unload their homes with 99.9% anti-bacterial sprays / wipes? How many here are continually trying to keep their kids as clean as possible?

Does anybody here have any observations on how their children react to infections, allergies and bacteria from either keeping them clean most of the time, compared to those who let their kids get messy from time to time?

I always figured, how is the immune system supposed to know what to protect against if it never gains any exposure to these things?

Of course, I'm not saying to let your kids lick a poop on a stick (Poopsicle) or anything, but I feel society has become so over protective, that they are creating the same problems they're trying so hard to avoid.

Maybe the reason why the common cold and the flu seem so resistant is because our immune systems have become weaker and so many people are looking at the whole situation the wrong way.

 

[Cliffy]

I don't know if it caught on or not, but a few years ago a company was selling dirt in capsules at the health food stores so that people could get their daily allotment of dirt.
Yes, we are too sterile. Our immune systems don't function. That is why disease is rampant. And all those antiseptic, anti-bacterial cleaners are probably killing more people than helping.