Too clean kids, heart disease as adults

[The Straight Story]

Too clean kids, heart disease as adults

EVANSTON, Ill., Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Parents tempted to keep children shining clean should perhaps ease up on the war with germs to prevent disease in adulthood, U.S. researchers suggest.

"Contrary to assumptions related to earlier studies, our research suggests that ultra-clean, ultra-hygienic environments early in life may contribute to higher levels of inflammation as an adult, which in turn increases risks for a wide range of diseases," lead study author Thomas McDade, associate professor of anthropology in Northwestern University's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and the Institute for Policy Research, says in a statement.

McDade suggests exposure to infectious microbes early in life may protect individuals from cardiovascular diseases that can lead to death as an adult.

The research suggests that inflammatory systems may need a higher level of exposure to common everyday bacteria and microbes to guide their development.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/12/09/Too-clean-kids-heart-disease-as-adults/UPI-44391260386683/

[NYC_SKP]

1. I'm not surprised. Common sense tells us...

Unless one doesn't buy into the whole "evolution" theory...

Humans did NOT develop based on a diet of processed foods or baby formula, for example, or in a sterile environment.

The further certain elements stray from what were the conditions during tens of thousands of years of our evolution, the more likely this sort of thing is likely to happen.

Evolution just can't keep up with the changes in our behaviors.

Cool post, recced.

[HuckleB]

14. "Common sense" is meaningless.

Yet, this post offers good information.

[closeupready]

17. LOL - most posters are workaday people, not Ph.D. medical researchers.

If what you mean is 2+2 doesn't necessarily = 4, unless that has been verified by established mathematical authorities, replicated by peers, and published in mainstream professional math journals. :rofl:

[HuckleB]

18. I mean the whole concept of "Common Sense" is BS.

And anyone who reads ought to understand that.

[closeupready]

19. I still disagree. Common sense, for purposes of DU threads, is a perfectly legit

means of making a claim.

[HuckleB]

20. Only if you want to talk about nothing.

[closeupready]

23. Well, for any topic to which you HuckleB are a party, yes.

:rofl:

[HuckleB]

26. So you revert to the personal attack.

No wonder you so vehemently defend such a meaningless cliche.

[NYC_SKP]

21. lol this subthread. Maybe I should have written, "it seems to me.." or some such.

I can see where "common sense" could sound presumptuous or superior.

Probably many people don't think the way I do about the disconnection between how we evolved and our current lives, diet, environment, etc.

:shrug:

[closeupready]

24. No, he's just being arrogant.

n/t

[HuckleB]

25. Now you're being arrogant.

"Common sense" has a long history of being found to be wrong.

[SPedigrees]

2. This is not news. This conclusion was reported about a decade ago.

Also children in homes with a certain amount of dust and pet hair are unlikely to develop allergies to either. Squeaky clean environments lead to insufficient immune development.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. Well, then my 8yo will live to be 130, I guess. -nt

[marlakay]

4. So all of us raised in the 60's making mud pies

will be around for a long time!!

That is if we can keep our health insurance!

[bahrbearian]

12. I used to eat mud pies , I've got a "one up" on you

[Lone_Star_Dem]

5. One more thing my daughter needs to thank me for!

Gawd, but I was a great mom! :rofl:

[Staph]

6. I have heard similar, anecdotal evidence

that the higher incidence of allergies and asthma in the last century may be attributed to a too-clean childhood. If you are exposed to dirt and bugs and other kids' runny noses, your immune system is well-tested and able to better handle the more dangerous stuff (and to recognize the difference between dangerous microbes and one's own body parts).

I played in the dirt, drank well water at both of my grandmothers' homes, and I'm disgustingly healthy for my age (aside from the few extra pounds I'd like to lose!).

[dugaresa]

7. then my kids will live forever!

[PVnRT]

8. Some exposure to germs is a good thing

The body's immune system is kind of like an athlete - it has to practice to do its job. Without reacting to invading germs, the body has no way to develop antibodies to fight them in the future.

[tridim]

9. I hope Michael Jackson's kids are finally being allowed to be kids.

Sorry for bringing up MJ again. :)

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. IOW, quite literally, that which does not kill us makes us stonger. nt

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. There is a theory that a too-clean environment causes allergies and asthma, BUT...

my observation suggests that nowadays, when most couples are two-career couples, houses are actually LESS clean than they were when I was growing up, when most mothers stayed at home and devoted their energies to making sure that the house was sparkling clean.

My great-aunt used to scrub her kitchen floor every day. You just don't see that kind of super cleanliness anymore.

Asthma and allergies are increasing in urban China and urban India, too, and no one ever accused those countries of being obsessed with cleanliness. (I've been to China. "Super-clean" is not a word that I'd use.)

My theory is that the increase in respiratory troubles is caused by automobile exhaust. In both China and India, it is only in the past ten years or so that cars have gone from being luxury items to being middle-class items. Respiratory problems skyrocketed in Japan in the 1960s, when cars became generally available in that country's urban areas.

In American cities, respiratory problems are most common among children who live near freeways. I went from allergy-free to practically incapacitated by allergies after my family moved from a quiet, off-the-beaten-path neighborhood to a house alongside a main highway in another city.

But wait, there's more!

If only air pollution were the cause, then Eastern Europe would have worse respiratory problems than Western Europe. But in fact, the opposite is the case.

What does Western Europe have that Eastern Europe doesn't?

In Western Europe, the average family owns a car. In Eastern Europe, that is still the exception.

The car exhaust hypothesis explains the difference between urban and rural areas. There is simply less automobile traffic going past a farm than past a house in the city.

Furthermore, since the air inside a car is pretty bad as well, children who spend a lot of time each day strapped into the backseat of a car being driven here and there are also exposed to pollutants in a way that those of us in previous generations were not.

I do agree that exposure to germs helps our immune system, though.

A few retired schoolteachers have told me that they were sick all the time their first few years of teaching but that they were hardly ever sick after that.

One retired elementary school teacher told me that when she went to China on a group tour, everyone in their group developed a major respiratory infection (I know what that's like, since it happened to me) EXCEPT herself and another retired schoolteacher.

[athenasatanjesus]

13. another reason I don't drink bottled water

Of course the true reason is that bottled water is just a waste of money and environmental resources among other things,but I always figured it was also better to drink water that while purified wasn't too purified.

[SPedigrees]

32. +1 nt

[angstlessk]

15. my grandmother was a clean freak and both her sons died from heart attacks

not to blame her, but any room in her home could have been an operating room. Hands and knees, scrub and wash, her home was always immaculate, and probably germ free.

[Javaman]

16. I ate mud. Little did I know I was curing myself of heard disease!

:rofl:

[Odin2005]

22. This does not suprise me one bit.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

27. Thanks for posting.

[The Straight Story]

30. no problem, my bill is in the mail

:rofl:

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

31. I'll throw it in the stack with the others I don't pay (that's all of them).

[Manifestor_of_Light]

28. I have horrible allergies and respiratory troubles.

I grew up in a filthy house, dust bunnies, no A/C to filter the air, oppressive heat and humidity that grew mold, roaches, rats, a large hairy dog, parents that smoked and I lived within a few miles of some stinking refineries and paper mills. Mom was a packrat and a terrible housekeeper. The clothes were clean and the dishes and the bedclothes. but as far as clutter and dust? All over the place.

Result? I had a continual runny nose as a child, sinus infections, sore throats, etc.

Nowadays, in my fifties? I have sinus trouble, take decongestants and expensive asthma medications, and have food allergies and dog and cat and wool allergies. My allergies have gotten worse.

I live in a much cleaner house now, with central air and heat, than I did growing up.

[SoCalDem]

29. Our youngest's nickname was "pig-boy".. he should be safe

when they were little (we lived in New Mexico) and many times Dad would come home for lunch to find me and the boys out in the dirt trying to catch those lightning-fast blue lizards...

they played with bugs, dug tunnels & made racetracks in the back yard..

The bathtub ring was something to behold, when those guys were little.. they all grew up non-allergenic and healthy:)..but then they also did not eat prepared babyfood or soda pop or junk food..