Comments on: Why didn’t somebody tell my mother?

By: maryatexitzero

maryatexitzero — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 18:24:22 +0000

She obviously didn’t know about the “Hygiene Hypothesis” when she would be angry at me for tracking in half the mud holes from Van Cortlandt Park

Are you talking about Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx? My dad tracked mud from that park into his apartment for years. If you can survive that, (and the two-fifth street subway station) you can survive anything.

My grandma has been living in the gritty Bronx for more than half a century and she’s still going strong.

By: ElMondo

ElMondo — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 18:17:25 +0000

“So give your immune system something to do and get your asthmatic ass outside.”

You mean like yesterday, when I went to the golf course? Or, the day before, when I was out fishing? In my normal (i.e. frequently visited) spot?

It takes a bit more than going outside to treat this problem.

Stress, btw, is a possible trigger, not the determinant one.

Also, asthma is a hypersensitivity to triggers; it isn’t just “an immune system with nothing to do”.

Please don’t imply that asthma is something us asthmatics brought on ourselves by not going outside enough. That’s demeaning.

By: Buddy Larsen

Buddy Larsen — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 00:46:49 +0000

I think the point was less one of advocacy and more one of rue–in that Mother Nature disregards intention, that–within the post’s premise–the last fraction of hygiene spiked the mentioned maladies and perhaps has diminished total wellness. I’d hate to see the long-settled basic human belief that eugenics is an evil science, prevent moms and dads from easing off the antibiotics and antiseptic-bubble ideal.

By: TomTom

TomTom — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 14:35:09 +0000

As a doc, may I say the thesis is correct, BUT totally fails to recognize the larger truth, which is the loss of life of the many who were infected. The relatively few survivors thereof (the evolutionarily selected) are being compared to the many that today are with us just because they didn’t get killed off.
It is the old eugenics argument in new dress.

By: Ric Locke

Ric Locke — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 12:26:39 +0000

This is not a particularly new observation.

The Antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup
were playing in the garden when the Bunny gamboled up…

Strictly Germ-Proof

Regards,
Ric

By: Buddy Larsen

Buddy Larsen — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 06:36:00 +0000

It’s like going to the hospital or the doctor’s office–that’s precisely the first place where you’d actually go if you were TRYING to get sick. Where else you gonna find plenty of contagious sick people?

By: Luther McLeod

Luther McLeod — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 04:39:00 +0000

Achhh, what a complicated world. I happened to grow up during the “let him eat dirt” gestalt. I encountered the usual, chickenpox, measles, mumps and various other illnesses. But, in adulthood, I rarely am ill. What does it mean in regards to this study? Not much I think. There are a multitude of factors that affect us. Very complicated. Though my gut says, get out there and get dirty, is good advice.

By: Richard Nieporent

Richard Nieporent — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 02:48:26 +0000

This is not a new discovery. It was observed that polio became more virulent in places where there were good sanitation.

Polio was initially seen as a disease of immigrants in primitive living conditions. Public health officials were obsessed with eradicating filth and enacted strict sanitation policies. But as the 20th century progressed, polio disproportionately struck the middle class, and began striking adults as well as children. Scientists believe this was the result of the improved sanitation. When water supplies were consistently contaminated with the polio virus, as they were in impoverished areas, people were typically infected during infancy, but only rarely developed paralysis — most suffered little more than diarrhea, and then had lifelong immunity against polio. In contrast, middle-class people with access to clean drinking water might not encounter the virus until later in childhood, when the virus was more likely to spread to brain and spinal cord and cause paralysis.

By: mythusmage

mythusmage — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 01:27:37 +0000

Isn’t asthma an allergic reaction,exaserbated by stress, to airborne particle?.

An allergy is your immune system with nothing to do. It evolved to have something to do. With nothing to do it will find something to do, even when that something is totally inappropriate, or even harmful. Much like adolescents as a matter of fact. So give your immune system something to do and get your asthmatic ass outside.

By: Sissy Willis

Sissy Willis — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 23:49:52 +0000

Isn’t that exactly what’s wrong with our utopianist fellow Americans from the left side of the aisle who’ve never been challenged by the soul-crushing imperatives of living in a fear society? They’ve got no resistance to fight back when p.c. and islamofascism move into the neighborhood. Eurabia comes to mind. They haven’t a chance.