Wired News: You Dirty, Healthy Rat
June 18, 2006
Wired News: You Dirty, Healthy Rat
Are we too clean? The “Hygien Hypothesis” posits that Western children have such high rates of allergy and asthma because we protect them too intensely from germs and dirt in the environment. This means that their immune systems go haywire for little things like dust and pollen. There may be some credence to this theory, which was also recently discussed in National Geographic. However, anyone who has seen their spouse try to breastfeed a three-month old with a cold may disagree.
