Highly Allergic To A Sanitized Life

Allergies, what is going on and what is making us more allergic than ever before?

I've had contact dermatitis for 6 years, I'll cover that in my next post, but my six year old was just diagnost with an airborn allergy, and one of the most frustrating conclusions is that his doctor said we don't cure the allergy since that's almost impossible we just take care of the symptoms so he can live a more symptom free life, what's going on??

According to UCLA Health The hygiene hypothesis states that excessive cleanliness interrupts the normal development of the immune system, and this change leads to an increase in allergies. 

Why are Allergies Increasing?

The occurrence of allergic disease is skyrocketing, and some estimates are that as many as one-in-five Americans have an allergic condition. Allergies are specific and reproducible undesired and unpleasant immune responses that are triggered by naturally occurring substances such as foods, pollens or other influences in  our surroundings. Overwhelming evidence from various studies suggests that the "hygiene hypothesis" explains most of the allergy epidemic.

THE HYGIENE HYPOTHESIS

The hygiene hypothesis states that excessive cleanliness interrupts the normal development of the immune system, and this change leads to an increase in allergies. In short, our "developed" lifestyles have eliminated the natural variation in the types and quantity of germs our immune systems needs for it to develop into a less allergic, better regulated state of being.

This diagram simplifies the immune system into two separate tendencies: TH1 and TH2 responses. On the left, we see that exposures to germs, "dirt" and certain types of infection are part of the natural development of our immune response from a "default" TH2-based system at birth to a "mature" TH1-based system. On the right, we see how some cultural choices can interrupt the course of the immune system, and allow the TH2 response to continue to dominate and promote allergic conditions. Therefore, many of the advances of modernization, such as good sanitation and eradicating parasitic (helmith) infections, may actually be fueling this epidemic of allergies.

Nature Reviews Immunology 2002 (2) 132-138 Larger image >>

Ok so what the study at UCLA Is saying is that here in the Western world we are too clean, too sanitized and too "urban civil".

So what are we supposed to do get a couple chickens and put them in our small yards, if we have a yard, have more children, use less antibiotics (I agree with this one), fire our housekeepers or clean our homes less often I also can live with that one! 

This study seems somewhat logical to me but who knows allergies can be increasing because of so many factors besides the fact we have grown into an ultra sanitized society which I will be covering all this week, next week I'll be posting about how to manage allergies naturally.

Ciao For Now, and Achoo!!