Allergies: because we're too clean


If you suffer from allergies, do you ever notice they seem to go away when you're sick with something else? I do.

The most dramatic example happened this fall, the time of year when my house dust allergies usually hit their peak. In late October I underwent abdominal surgery, a major operation, and spent a week in hospital. Since I arrived home, my allergies have hardly raised a sneeze or a sniffle. Every night I go peacefully to sleep without my usual attack of hacking coughs.

Apparently my body is busy doing what it's supposed to do: fighting off infection. There's some serious healing go on. My immune system is too preoccupied to make the usual petty fuss over dust mites and dander from my tabby.

It's just speculation, but it makes sense to me. Our bodies are finely tuned to nature. Evolution has brought us to a delicate balance with our environment. We have an elaborate mechanism for eliminating real threats like harmful bacteria and toxins. But in the absence of those, it overreacts to benign intruders like pollen and protein-rich foods.

Humanity has a way of tampering with the natural course of things. Many of us see nature as a threat. We push away the woods and wildlife, death, darkness and dirt, all to our detriment.

Now it seems we're living too cleanly. The incidence of childhood asthma and allergies in North America has more than doubled in the past two decades. This phenomenon is evident throughout the West, but not in developing countries. We also know that children who live on farms, who attend day care in early childhood, or have two or more siblings are less likely to develop asthma.

Recent research gives credence to the hygiene hypothesis, which suggests that our obsession with cleanliness may actually be responsible for the problem. One study focused on endotoxin, a cell wall compound found in bacteria that inhabit the intestines of livestock and pets. In high doses, this substance causes an adverse reaction. But researchers measured the relatively small quantities found in bed linen. They found that children exposed to especially low quantities of the protein were more likely to suffer from asthma and allergies than children with dirtier sheets. City children are more likely than farm children to have clean sheets and asthma.

This is the first clear evidence to explain why farms are a healthier place for children to grow up, in terms of allergies. But scientists think other factors will come to light. Perhaps the usual childhood infections from outdoor scrapes and bruises have a way of stimulating a healthy immune system, rather than a hypersensitive one.

The copyright of the article Allergies: because we're too clean in Living With Nature is owned by Van Waffle. Permission to republish Allergies: because we're too clean in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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