Should We Listen to the Rats?
The idea of keeping lab rats is to learn valuable data relevant to human health. So goes the theory. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has quite an interesting article for you to read about how just relevant rat test results might actually be to humans. We all know, however, that lab rats are used routinely to test efficiency and safety of new medicines before they are approved for human clinical trials, so the jury still seems to be out on the question of how much attention we should pay to the latest "rat news". Having said that, I'll point out one of the latest news flashes to you and then let you make up your own mind.
A new study published Friday in the Scandanavian Journal of Immunology seems to indicate that too much "clean" can actually make you sick. The theory is based on differences in the immune systems between euthanized lab rats and their wild cousins. Those of the lab rats had far too protected a living environment, causing their systems to overreact to "minor irritants", while those of the wild creatures had as much as four times the level of immunoglobulins and yet they were not sick. Their systems seemed freer to ignore the minor irritants and save their strength for fighting the big battles.
The findings lend weight to the theory that the western world is overly sanitized, a condition thought to contribute to the ever-increasing rates of allergies, asthma, and some autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. This theory, the "hygiene theory" hypothesizes that if a person's immune system is insufficiently challenged by dirt in their early years, it will overreact later on to such minor irritants as pollen.
Scientists currently theorize that early exposure to "dirt" explains the much lower incidence of allergies in developing countries. Certainly there is growing concern about the routine overuse of antibiotics in the western world. Giving out prescriptions for antibiotics at the first sign of a cough has been commonplace for too many years, as has the practice of including them in animal feed. All this is resulting in drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis, and salmonella, among others.
It's time for a few changes. Letting baby crawl is actually a good thing! Throwing out the "anti-bacterial" soaps around your home is good too. Obviously, some bacteria are nothing but nasty, but lots of them will do you no real harm at all. Ease up a little on the cleaning.
A new study published Friday in the Scandanavian Journal of Immunology seems to indicate that too much "clean" can actually make you sick. The theory is based on differences in the immune systems between euthanized lab rats and their wild cousins. Those of the lab rats had far too protected a living environment, causing their systems to overreact to "minor irritants", while those of the wild creatures had as much as four times the level of immunoglobulins and yet they were not sick. Their systems seemed freer to ignore the minor irritants and save their strength for fighting the big battles.
The findings lend weight to the theory that the western world is overly sanitized, a condition thought to contribute to the ever-increasing rates of allergies, asthma, and some autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. This theory, the "hygiene theory" hypothesizes that if a person's immune system is insufficiently challenged by dirt in their early years, it will overreact later on to such minor irritants as pollen.
Scientists currently theorize that early exposure to "dirt" explains the much lower incidence of allergies in developing countries. Certainly there is growing concern about the routine overuse of antibiotics in the western world. Giving out prescriptions for antibiotics at the first sign of a cough has been commonplace for too many years, as has the practice of including them in animal feed. All this is resulting in drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis, and salmonella, among others.
It's time for a few changes. Letting baby crawl is actually a good thing! Throwing out the "anti-bacterial" soaps around your home is good too. Obviously, some bacteria are nothing but nasty, but lots of them will do you no real harm at all. Ease up a little on the cleaning.
1 Comments:
Bacteria is very important to humans. We've evolved with them. Yes, there are those that are bad -- so for instance, one shouldn't go an stick their heads into the cat box -- yes, there are those who deserve that, but that's another topic. Consider the fact that bacteria in our own bodies, outnumber our cells 10:1. In our bodies for instance, the symbiotic relationship we have with bacteria helps us convert food into vitamins, minerals and energy. (Babies born without bacteria in their bodies, are fairly limited in what they can eat for this reason. Without bacteria, we can't digest food.) Our skin is filled with helpful bacteria that serves to keep the dangerous ones at bay -- yet we kill them off with anti-bacterial soal. Early exposure to everyday bacteria forces our bodies to produce T-helper cells that fight infections. It's what keeps us alive. We've evolved dependent on them as they are dependent on us. Maybe we need to rethink what makes us human.
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