Childhood asthma risk affected by bacteria in early infancy

[applegrove]

Childhood asthma risk affected by bacteria in early infancy

CBC News

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/asthma-microbes-gut-infants-1.3250510

"SNIP.............

Children gain protection against asthma if exposed to four types of gut bacteria by the age of three months, as their immune system is being established, a team of B.C. researchers has discovered.

The researchers, from B.C. Children's Hospital, recognized asthma is the top reason for going to the hospital. It's suspected the way we're living exposes us to fewer microbes, which could contribute to the increase in asthma rates.

To explore this idea, Dr. Stuart Turvey and Prof. Brett Finlay of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and his team studied 319 children participating in the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study. They used a powerful genetic technique to analyze fecal samples from the children when they were three months old.

"We're really excited about this study because we found that children at very high risk of asthma had low levels of four bacteria in their intestines," said Turvey.

.............SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. Maybe there is good reason why babies put everything in their mouths. More bacteria.

[SheilaT]

3. It also seems to me, totally on an anecdotal basis,

that the germaphobes, the ones who won't open a public restroom door with their bare hands, for instance, are not at all healthier than a slop like me who doesn't give a hoot about such things. Indeed, it seems to me as though the germaphobes get sicker, more often, than many others.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. "Hothouse flowers" is the term for overly sheltered children ...

who seem overly susceptible to illness. So yeah, the idea's been around a while.

[SheilaT]

2. I did not know these specifics,

but I've long been aware that childhood exposure to bacteria and viruses can be a very good thing. Our immune systems are primed to respond to early challenges, and if they don't get those challenges, the immune system will not develop properly.

Which is why I have a certain concern about the schedule of vaccinations for children, but I am still not an anti-vaccine person. And while I frequently point out that the immunity you get from actually contracting a disease is often better and longer-lasting than that conveyed from vaccination, I am not about to suggest we go back to the days when most people got smallpox. Just to name one example.