Squeaky-Clean Aromas Wash Away Baby’s Immune System
Nobody would argue that the arrival of a new baby is a time when cleanliness is critical but a new study suggests too much of a good thing can leave your child gasping for breath. Seems asthma has a tendency to develop in young children if they were exposed to excessive cleaning solvents and chemicals before and after they were born.
A study involving more than 13,000 children during gestation and until the age of seven has revealed a 41% higher risk of developing asthma before turning seven when the child was exposed to an excessive amount of typical household cleaning products throughout pregnancy and shortly after birth.
The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents of Children (ALSPAC) strengthens the “hygiene hypothesis” in relation to the strength of a child’s immune system. The hypothesis poses the link between too clean a home (a minimal amount of bacteria and dust) and children who have a high rate of maladies that signal a compromised immune system as evidenced by the development of allergies and asthma.
The ALSPAC, sometimes called the Children of the 90s study, strengthens that hypothesis by proving that a child’s immune system is overtaxed when the home is frequently filled with the aromas of cleaning solutions.
Previous studies have shown that children who grow up in homes with pets and dust don’t develop allergies and asthma at the same high rate as children raised in cleaner environments. It is thought that early exposure to naturally occurring allergens help strengthen the child’s immune system as it develops.
The findings of the ALSPAC have just been released by the Brunel University School of Health Sciences and Social Care, where Dr. Alexandra Farrow, announced the study’s findings on behalf of the ALSPAC team earlier today.
Source: Brunel University
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Although a welcome addition to the amount of information available to the general public on the hygiene hypothesis the article betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the hygiene hypothesis and the effects of a too sterile environment on the immune system.
The immune system is not overtaxed, it is undertaxed, the lack of exposure to benign bacteria, viruses, molds and the eradication of helminths leads to a mal adusted and overactive immune system that mistakenly attacks self tissues (autoimmune disease) or benign pathogens (pollen, dust, dander) resulting in disease (asthma, allergies, Crohn’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, etc., ad nauseum).
The immune system is compromised, but it is not weakened or damaged, it is mis directed and uncalibrated.
Having evolved in constant contact with the soil and a vast variety of bacteria, viruses and intestinal worms (helminths) our immune systems have evolved to deal with all these things. Its normal development depends on being so exposed. When we deny it these environmental cues we deny it the opportunity to “learn” to distinguish between appropriate targets and inappropriate ones. The result is an immune system attacking self tissues and pollen instead of mycobacteria, etc.
The consequences for society is a ten and one hundred fold increase in various immunological disorders, like autism, in the last 20-30 years.
Thanks for the article.
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