{"id":272157,"date":"2017-03-13T13:46:13","date_gmt":"2017-03-13T17:46:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rael.org\/?p=272157"},"modified":"2020-08-30T14:00:20","modified_gmt":"2020-08-30T18:00:20","slug":"children-need-microbes-not-antibiotics-to-develop-immunity-scientists-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/id\/children-need-microbes-not-antibiotics-to-develop-immunity-scientists-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Children need microbes \u2013 not antibiotics \u2013 to develop immunity, scientists say"},"content":{"rendered":"
RAEL\u2019S COMMENT:<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n
Absolutely! When I was a child, I was playing with many animals and insects and putting everything in my mouth, and I still remember drinking milk coming right out of the cow with pieces of her shit that she was sending in the milk when moving her tail: never got any disease!<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s important to wash your hands. It\u2019s critical during cold and flu season and especially if you visit someone at the hospital.<\/p>\n

The problem is \u2014 in the West at least \u2014 parents have taken the business of keeping clean way too far.<\/p>\n

New science shows that\u00a0blasting away\u00a0tiny organisms called microbes with our hand sanitizers, antibacterial soaps and liberal doses of antibiotics is having a profoundly negative impact on our kids\u2019 immune systems, says microbiologist Marie-Claire Arrieta, co-author of a new book called\u00a0Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Our Children from an Oversanitized World.<\/p>\n

The assistant professor at the University of Calgary, along with her co-author, esteemed microbiologist Brett Finlay, make the case that we\u2019re raising our kids in a cleaner, more hyper-hygienic environment than ever before. They say that overdoing it the way we are is contributing to a host of chronic conditions ranging from allergies to obesity. I chatted with Arrieta recently to find out more.<\/p>\n

What inspired you and Finlay to write\u00a0Let Them Eat Dirt?<\/p>\n

We\u2019re both microbiologists and we\u2019ve been studying the community of microbes that live in our guts \u2014 what we call our gut microbiome. In recent years research from our lab and other labs has shown that the health of this microbiome early in life is really crucial to our lifelong health. It\u2019s not just that we\u2019re scientists but we\u2019re both parents. We thought that parents and caregivers would really benefit from us bringing this knowledge to the public.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been hearing for some time that overusing antibiotics may lead to antibiotic-resistant hospital infections, something we may associate with the elderly and other immune-compromised people. But I gather the implications are much more immediate and individual than that. What\u2019s the connection between microbes and the development of the immune system in childhood?<\/p>\n

When we\u2019re born we do not have any microbes. Our immune system is underdeveloped. But as soon as microbes come into the picture, they kick-start our immune system to work properly. Without microbes our immune system can\u2019t fight infections well.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the presence of these microbes but what they produce. They produce molecules and substances that directly interact with the cells of the lining in our guts, but also with the immune cells that are on the other side of the lining in our guts. They literally train them. It is only upon the encounter with these microbial substances that an immune cell obtains the information to do what they\u2019re supposed to do. Then these cells in our gut have the ability to transport themselves to other parts of the body to do more training.<\/p>\n

It was rare when we were growing up to learn of a peer having a severe nut allergy. In the book you touch on a theory known as the \u201chygiene hypothesis.\u201d What is that?<\/p>\n

The hygiene hypothesis tries to explain why allergies, as well as obesity and inflammatory bowel disease and even autism, these are all diseases on the rise. And this is not explained by genes alone. Our genes simply do not change that fast. Research is consistently showing that it\u2019s these changes in early life exposure to microbes that are driving the rise of these diseases. The lack of microbial exposure early in life that is necessary for our immune systems to be trained properly and to eventually be able to avoid the development of these diseases.<\/p>\n

Are there things parents can do \u2014 and not do \u2014 to make sure they develop a good healthy microbiome and perhaps lower the chances of children contracting allergies, asthma and other related conditions?<\/p>\n

Epidemiological evidence shows that kids who are growing up on a farm environment have way less chance of developing asthma. Of course you cannot just pick up your things and become a farmer, but what this suggests is that living in an environment that is less clean is actually better. The same is true for owning a pet, specifically a dog. Let your baby safely play with dogs.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.thestar.com\/life\/2016\/10\/20\/children-need-microbes-not-antibiotics-to-develop-immunity-scientists-say.html<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RAEL\u2019S COMMENT: Absolutely! When I was a child, I was playing with many animals and insects and putting everything in my mouth, and I still remember drinking milk coming right out of the cow with pieces of her shit that she was sending in the milk when moving her tail: never got any disease!  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":272158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noproxy.rael.org\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}