I’m hearing lot of moms say that it’s ok to let children play in dirt, attend daycare with sick kids, not sanitize the living spaces too much, put dirty stuff in their mouths because they can only build their immune strength by getting sick first(?!).
I have read the hygiene hypothesis paper and many research papers that have disputed that paper aswell so I’m just curious to learn the science behind the idea ‘let them get sick first’.
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Children who were exposed to a lot more dirt and bacteria in East Germany were shown to have stronger (‘more mature’) immune systems than West Germany just after the wall came down. It was already known at that point that depriving a child exposure to bacteria or viruses means the body has nothing to work with, because that’s how the immune system develops. Some of our immune cells are innate, so we already have them and they aren’t created by meeting new pathogens (foreign bodies). Some of our immune cells (adaptive) such as antibodies are created by meeting a pathogen for the first time, then they are duplicated and stored in your body for a second time which means the body can skip the first stage and save time by going straight into attack. That’s why we fight off cold viruses and other viruses more easily when we have them again. Some viruses change more than others and may need more tweeking than others.
Some viruses are better caught in childhood than in adulthood, such as chicken pox. It is more severe in adults than children. Children can usually avoid another attack from the virus by having it’s own uniquely created immune cells , although it will remain in the cells DNA forever in the dorsal root ganglia (a nerve)).
We still don’t have well known facts to share with the world about exactly how much children should be exposed and how much it helps each individual. These are hard things to measure, and it is something people feel quite differently about. Some families want to stay very clean and hygienic, avoiding exposure to bacteria. Others feel the opposite, that exposure is vital, but they tend to not try to make it happen- more allow things to get a little bit more dirty for example.
For example, most of the bacteria on your hand is healthy and well help to prevent other bacteria sitting on your hand. If you wash your hands, you wash them all off. However, there are some bacteria that are dangerous and some people are more vulnerable that we choose a happy medium- to wash our hands regularly.
My dad, was not a scientist- he was an engineer and from the 50″s, he used to say ‘bacteria get bad press’.
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