The dirty mechanism of too much cleanliness leading to allergies

[Adina P]

I read all the time about how being too clean can lead kids to develop allergies but I had never read any hypotheses on mechanisms.  Without a proposed mechanism, a scientific idea is worthless to me.  This article finally gave me SOMETHING...but of course, more research is needed:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/03/23/149232765/why-getting-gr...

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

This is interesting, but I'm not sure how it would impact my actual behavior.  Do I stop cleaning the house?  Do I wash my hands less often?  When I think of my daughters and grandkids, I'm also not sure how this might influence what they do on a daily basis.  They keep clean homes and bathe the kids each day and teach them to wash their hands before eating and after using the bathroom...again, I'm not sure how any of that would change, even if this were proven to be true.  Am I missing something?

[F, Calla & Luca]

I think the idea is to be not fanatical re: dirt and germs. Antibacterial wipes, and overdoing things may nit be a good idea. But we all harbor millions and millions of good bacteria, thank goodness, so I don't think this is the whole answer. Nothing about human health, or doodle health etc., is ever simple.

[Bonnie and Kona]

The obsession with anti bacterial hand cleaner and all of the anti bacterial cleaning products has seemed overzealous to me and to my DH who is a civil sanitary engineer. Wash with soap, yes, anti bacterial everything???

[F, Calla & Luca]

I agree. We talked a bit about this in Sherri's discussion on sinus infections.

[F, Calla & Luca]

I never knew the mechanism but you will recall I encourage some "dirt" exposure. This was very interesting. Growing up in NYC, with a mother who was not Dora Domestic and being something of a Tomboy early on must have done me some good. Still I do have allergies : )

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

I had similar circumstances and I have few allergies (basically just grass) but asthma for sure. The thing is asthma ran rampant in my family, so I don't think it mattered what environment I grew up in. I'm sure genetics plays a big part in all of this...

[Christine & Camus]

My thinking on being overly concerned with dirt and germs causing allergies is not based on science, just personal experience.  When my son was born I became a cleaning fanatic.  I mean a real fanatic!  I cleaned and disinfected everything in sight, to the point of nearly poisoning myself with bleach fumes.  And still, my son was constantly sick.  His pediatrician said it was allergies. Now  having had no "controls" in place I still do not know if he would have been any healthier had I not cleaned so furiously, but I do think that the excessive disinfecting did not allow for his immune system to develop as it would have had he been exposed to a normal range of "dirt." 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I think the body has a way of adapting to its environment. If small amounts of dirt or germs are in that environment, the body builds up defenses or tolerances to them.

[Christine & Camus]

I agree...

[F, Calla & Luca]

By the way, I want to clarify that certain organism deserve more caution. Any raw meat or poultry can harbor bad strains of E. coli or salmonella. So proper handling, is a must. I try to keep these thing on the packaging before cooking, flouring in a plastic bag etc. and then throwing the packaging away. Hand washing thoroughly after handling these things is a must too. But nowadays bad organisms have shown up in produce too and I do not bleach my fruits and vegetables. There's just so much one can do.

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

I think dirt, germs, clean houses, dogs, domestic animals in general just are a part of my "moderation in everything" theory of living.  Being raised with a lot of animals and their inherent "dirt" , in a moderately clean house, but allowed to get as dirty as I pleased probably contributed to this attitude.  Now if I could just stick to one Coke a day and one ounce of chocolate a day, I would be perfect  thinner.