The Hygiene Hypothesis: With Fewer Germs to Fight Does the Body Attack Itself?
Mr Velasquez-Manoff talks about the Tsimane tribe in South America. How they seem to be free from so many of the autoimmune disorders that we face here in America. That’s fascinating, but he also acknowledges that 25% of the children in this tribe die by 15 years of age. That’s like the old joke about the alcoholic never dying of heart disease. That’s because they die of Cirrhosis by 40!
Here’s the problem as I see it. Modern medicine has many limitations, but one of them is not the prolonging of our life expectancies. Those 25% of the Tsimane tribe who die by age 15 would probably be alive today had they been born in the USA. If those 25% had autoimmune disorders such as he speaks about, would he then blame hygiene or modern medicine for them ?
Hygiene throughout history has saved millions of more lives than it’s harmed. The number one cause of death during the Civil War was infection. In fact the Southern surgeons ran out of cotton for suturing during amputations, so they had to use horse tail strands. The horse tails were too coarse, so they boiled them to soften it up. There was a 50% reduction in death from infection because of this. Those smart doctors were sure it was from some hidden property of the horse tail and not that they boiled them. This illustrates 2 things: that it’s better to be lucky than smart and that us doctors are not that smart.
Another example would be seat belts. Some people are severely injured and even killed by the seat belts, but many more lives are saved by them. Velasquez-Manoff also does a very good job of putting to rest the risk of autism from vaccines. He is very open about what he found personally and explains his findings very clearly and honestly. He is honest about what he doesn’t know.
This book is extremely well written. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s an eye opener and I would have no problem for any patient who was at wits end with Irritable Bowel disease, MS, Autism or other autoimmune disease to try a hookworm or two to help alleviate pain and suffering. At least I would be following both of the physician’s edicts… I think.
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Image courtesy shutterstock / kaktuzoid
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I would recommend adding “Wildlife of Our Bodies” by Rib Dunn. He covers the hypothesis quite well. He includes examples of people with autoimmune disorders (i.e. severe asthma) being successfully treated via deliberate infection with parasites.
Well, I’m more like a 3-second rule, which is quick enough that even local vermin don’t have time to jump on your dorito and increase it’s protein value.
There is probably something to the hypothesis, and pig whipworms or whatever are a reasonable natural treatment, just as in some cases are leeches. But maybe those whipworms would be just as good sterilized and pureed and blended with a little cinnamon or fish oil or something, we don’t have to stop the science at this first observation.
Hmmmm. WARNING! Anecdotal evidence ahead!
I worked in China for an extended period about 10 years ago. I was warned, but I didn’t listen. No sterile American enclave for me. I ate what they ate, I lived where they lived. Colleagues were sure I was going to die.
Once back home, I didn’t get sick for several years. Not a cold or a flu bug found me appetizing.
There – hypothesis proven.
Or… maybe not.
Doesn’t seem to have proved fatal to about a billion Chinese citizens, either.
Still, that doesn’t necessarily recommend it, I don’t think the hygiene hypothesis recommends we re-pollute our environment, the way the Chinese are doing.
Ditto. Raised in Western Pennsylavania, close to the Ohio River. Close to Pittsburgh when it was called the “smoky city”.
My peer group swam in the Ohio, halfway between the open sewers and upstream from (most) of the steel mill pollutants. Remember, it wasn’t that long ago that the Saturday night bath was universal, deodorant unknown, and bath soap was 99.9% ‘pure’. Polio was rampant, smallpox virus was being wiped out and nobody I knew had asthma, was allergic to peanuts or anything, autism was unheard of and pregnant women were advised to have a glass of wine before bedtime.
Result? I’m still here and so are most of my peer group. No doubt we’re the recipients of modern miracles like the Polio vaccine and antibiotics.
Here in the Southwest, we have a special virus called “valley fever” that presents itself as a cold or flu and almost everyone suffers, but only once. Medical science is not working on a vaccine because once infected makes one immune.
The hypothesis is that bugs make you resistant to autoimmune diseases, not to other bugs.
The two edicts, do no harm, alleviate pain and suffering, were created at a time when doctors could not cure anything. Now that doctors can cure lots of things (and only really within the past 150 years or so) the number one edict should be to prolong life.
On the first edict I certainly don’t need a doctor’s help. On the second, I’m quite certain I could self-medicate and alleviate my own pain and suffering. What I pay a doctor for is to cure me so I live longer and healthier.
Actually the edicts are still the basis for health care.
By alleviating pain and suffering you are by all accounts try to cure what ails you, weather it be obesity or high blood pressure. Diabetes is not cured, only controlled. If you have a cancer, and your pain and suffering is alleviated, then your cancer is hopefully cured or contained. We are talking semantics…the point is that the patients well being comes first. That’s where those 2 edicts arise.
I saw an article to this effect in Discover magazine many years ago. They had studied the natives of a South Pacific island who were often infected with parasites, and they had noticed that the parts of the immune system that fought the parasites were the same ones that often caused allergies in other people. They were forming a hypothesis that perhaps it was the lack of challenge by their intended opponents (parasites) that caused those parts of the immune system to go haywire in response to other things (cause allergies).
My husband and I have resolved not to worry overmuch about raising our own child in a super pristine and sterile environment for some of the reasons you describe. We want their immune systems to be reasonably challenged and have fewer reasons to start attacking inappropriate targets.
Some are just born that way, not hereditary, not aquired. There’s much not known. My two cents could equal many hundreds or even thousands, as I have much experience and theories, but I’ll spare y’all and leave it at the two cents.
Mmmmmm …dirt.
Dr. Weiss seems a bit too harsh on the hygiene hypothesis. OK, I have not read the book, but surely the fact that the advantages of hygiene are overwhelming, does not imply that there are no drawbacks!
Having said that, whenever food touches the floor for a fraction of a second, I throw it away. If it’s an expensive item, I try to slice off the face that has touched the floor or to wash it for 10 seconds or so under running hot water, but when that is not possible I throw all of it away. It’s not just that I don’t know what bugs are on the underside of my shoes: it’s also the detergent used to wash the floor.
The solution to this problem is moderation. Living in a sterile environment causes the immune system to panic at the first perceived problem, so that’s not good. Neither is going back to the way things used to be, with deadly childhood diseases and water-borne diseases rampant. We need to train healthy immune systems by not rushing to sanitize our hands every time we sneeze when we’re not sick, and not demand medication for every little cold. This will preserve the effectiveness of medicine to deal with serious diseases, while averting cytokine storms and autoimmune diseases by giving our immune systems regular workouts.
Polio, pre-vaccine is a case in point: you catch it young, you are fine, if older you are SOL.
If you go third world, you eat hot food and leave the uncooked or cold. Just the way it is.
Public health practices are great, but we must understand that our immune system, from vaccines or experience is our protection.