Comment by gizmo686

4 years ago

It is not settled science, but one hypothesis is the hygiene hypothesis, which proposes that exposure to certain microbes at a young age is important for the development of a healthy immune system. By over sanatozing our environment, we prevent exposure of young children to those microbes, leading to the increased prevelence of allergies.

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gizmo686

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graeme  4 years ago

Note that the most important of these are intestinal worms, helminths. The other would be bacteria.

Respiratory viruses, by contrast, are not on the list. It is instead chronic presences in the body which may modulate immune response and avoid allergies.

(You said nothing wrong but the name itself is confusing)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis

  • nextaccountic  4 years ago

    Do you mean that a certain amount of helminths is beneficial for our health? Is this just during childhood or is helminth infestation beneficial the whole life?

    Maybe helminths shouldn't be called parasites then, since they somehow bring benefits to us? Like, there's some degree of mutualism

    • graeme  4 years ago

      The whole thing is debated and I’m not sure we have a clear answer. As of yet public health authorities are not recommending helminths, and they cause a lot of problems too

wink  4 years ago

Anecdata and all but my food allergies as a kid were a lot more severe than after puberty. On the other hand I'm pretty sure I could eat a few things as a toddler that I couldn't anymore in/after elementary school. It's really weird.

hgomersall  4 years ago

Interestingly, age of introduction is also important. For a long time the advice was to delay introducing allergens. It turns out that that increased the chance of being allergic to the thing.