The Hygiene Hypothesis: Dirt Is Good

The Hygiene Hypothesis:  Dirt Is GoodWhen I was a kid, you couldn’t get me to come inside.  I was outside playing in the woods behind our house, climbing trees, building forts and making “sukiyaki” out of worms and dirt.  And I HATED taking a bath.

My mom used to call me “Dirt-It” and tell me that potatoes would grow behind my ears because I never washed there.

These days, with the lure of video games and smart tablets, it’s hard to get my kids to go outside unless I go with them on a hike.  And my kids aren’t the exception.

Unfortunately, this trend, coupled with the fact that our houses may be TOO clean, may be contributing to growing rates of allergies, asthma, autism, ADHD and autoimmune diseases; this is known as the “hygiene hypothesis”.

“This theory believes that a lack of early childhood exposure to germs increases the chance for allergic diseases. Over-sanitization might suppress the natural development of the immune system”, concludes this study in Science Daily, which found that greater rates of peanut allergy are found in families with higher economic status.

In addition, scientists have recently discovered that certain microbes in the dirt act as natural antidepressants.

This blog post from Gardening Know How says that “Mycobacterium vaccae is the substance under study and has indeed been found to mirror the effect on neurons that drugs like Prozac provide. The bacterium is found in soil and may stimulate serotonin production, which makes you relaxed and happier.”

So there.  I really was happy to be playing in the dirt!

 

 

 

HOW MY SON’S SENSORY PROCESSING DISORDER LED TO MY SEVERE HEALTH DECLINE

Having a son with a developmental delay was very hard on me.  He didn’t walk until he was 20 months old.  This was extremely hard for me because he didn’t walk until 3 weeks before his little brother was born, and I was having to carry him everywhere.

I suppose the bright side is that he didn’t weigh a whole lot, given that he was also a failure-to-thrive baby.

His sensory processing disorder turned him into a barnacle.  I felt as if he were permanently physically attached to me.  It wasn’t so bad when he was younger, but after his brother was born, it was extremely difficult to deal with two small, crying children at the same time, who both wanted to be picked up and held at the same time.

And then when our nanny left to have her own baby when my older son had just turned 3, his sensory processing and anxiety went full tilt.  He was used to having someone always there immediately to meet his needs; now he had to share me with his baby brother. [Read more…]

THE LINK BETWEEN TYLENOL AND ASTHMA

Babies given Tylenol have a greater risk of developing asthma in later years. Researchers found that the more acetaminophen kids were given as infants, the more likely they were to develop asthma-like symptoms in early childhood. Read more…

SOURCE:  Reuters