Is Modern Hygeine Making Us Weaker?

[listopencil]

The Unintended (and Deadly) Consequences of Living in the Industrialized World

Scientists believe dirt could explain why some of the wealthiest countries suffer from afflictions rarely seen in less-developed nations

-snip-
The idea that dirt, or the lack of it, might play a role in autoimmune disease and allergy gained support along another border. In the late 1980s, Erika von Mutius was studying asthma in and around Munich. At the time, researchers thought air pollution was the cause. But after years of work, the young German researcher couldn’t clearly link Munich’s pollution and respiratory disease.

On November 9, 1989, an unusual opportunity came along: The Berlin Wall fell. For the first time since the 1940s, West Germans could conduct research in the East. Von Mutius, of Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, seized the opportunity, expanding her study to include Leipzig, a city of 520,000 deep in East Germany.

The countryside around Leipzig was home to polluting chemical plants and was pocked with open-pit coal mines; many residents heated their apartments with coal-burning ovens. It was a perfect experiment: Two groups of children with similar genetic backgrounds, divided by the Iron Curtain into dramatically different environments. If air pollution caused asthma, Leipzig’s kids should be off the charts.

Working with local doctors, von Mutius studied hundreds of East German schoolchildren. “The results were a complete surprise,” von Mutius says. “In fact, at first we thought we should re-enter the data.” Young Leipzigers had slightly lower rates of asthma than their Bavarian counterparts—and dramatically less hay fever, a pollen allergy.
-snip-

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scienc...tml?c=y&page=2

[Strongside]

Thanks Obama.

[kysirsoze]

This is why I almost never use hand sanitizer. Only when I think I'm getting sick.

[Mr. Laz]

avoiding the small illness will lead to big one?


I don't do the yearly shots for the flu etc either

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by tooge

I'm the same way. I cut my apples with the same pocket knife that I gut fish with. I generally wipe it with water and the end of my t shirt. My wife is appalled, but I don't generally get sick.

I eat raw roadkill that's been sitting in the sun for a few days. Only way to be safe.

[HonestChieffan]

Colonoscopy. The only true clean.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by OrtonsPiercedTaint

Dirt is brown like shit, it is shit.

According to you Avatar, shit is white....

[GloryDayz]

My youngest son will never need another shot!

[mlyonsd]

An interesting side note.....

I'm in my early 50's and in September I came down with chicken pox that turned into meningitis. Spent a week in the acute neurological ward. I even had CDC doctors examining me and watching my progress.

They had an interest in my case because I had chicken pox as a kid. They told me since the advent of the chicken pox vaccine it has become a rare disease and that the longer you are not exposed to them the less your immune system remembers you had them.

So thanks modern medicine, for making my life a shit hole for a couple of months.

[HonestChieffan]

Originally Posted by mlyonsd

An interesting side note.....

I'm in my early 50's and in September I came down with chicken pox that turned into meningitis. Spent a week in the acute neurological ward. I even had CDC doctors examining me and watching my progress.

They had an interest in my case because I had chicken pox as a kid. They told me since the advent of the chicken pox vaccine it has become a rare disease and that the longer you are not exposed to them the less your immune system remembers you had them.

So thanks modern medicine, for making my life a shit hole for a couple of months.

Shingles will get you next. Such fun from Chicken Pox

[mlyonsd]

Originally Posted by HonestChieffan

Shingles will get you next. Such fun from Chicken Pox

I know.

[GloryDayz]

Originally Posted by HonestChieffan

Shingles will get you next. Such fun from Chicken Pox

After that big storm, I got all new shingles.. Love them all!

[Cannibal]

Originally Posted by alnorth

I've always believed in the sewer rat philosophy. I'm not overly concerned with germs, I'll eat almost anything that hit the floor, I treat my body like a sewer rat, and my immune system is better off.

George Carlin held the same philosophy.

[HonestChieffan]

Originally Posted by mlyonsd

I know.

Oh young Luke you have much to learn.....

[Simply Red]

I'm so fresh and So ****ed.

['Hamas' Jenkins]

Not exactly groundbreaking. Studies have shown that kids who eat dirt and boogers are healthier.

All things in moderation, however. Modern sanitation has greatly increased life expectancy, but we can't expect to live in a sterile environment.