Getting a little dirty may be good for the body

New York, January 30: Children usually put into their mouths whatever they lay their hands on. This causes concern for parents but a new study revealed that allowing dirt to enter the body might be beneficial.

Researchers of the “hygiene hypothesis” explained that organisms, which enter the body through unclean substances may be advantageous to people’s health. They stated that bacteria, viruses and even worms, allow the body’s immune systemdefine to develop.

Dr. Mary Ruebush, a microbiology and immunologydefine instructor and author of the book, Why Dirt Is Good, said, “What a child is doing when he puts things in his mouth is allowing his immune response to explore his environment.

Not only does this allow for ‘practice’ of immune responses, which will be necessary for protection, but it also plays a critical role in teaching the immature immune response what is best ignored.”

And Dr. Ruebush is not alone in this assumption, Dr. Joel Weinstock, gastroenterology and hepatologydefine director at the Tufts Medical Center in Boston says that the immune system of a newborn child “is like an unprogrammed computer. It needs instruction.”

Today’s society is becoming obsessed with cleanliness and while public health campaigns for cleanliness have saved lives of many children, they have somewhat “also eliminated exposure to many organisms that are probably good for us,” states Dr. Weinstock.

He also added, “Children raised in an ultraclean environment are not being exposed to organisms that help them develop appropriate immune regulatory circuits.”

Dr. Weinstock has also performed a study together with Dr. David Elliot, a gastroenterologist and immunologist at the University of Iowa regarding intestinal worms. Their study showed that eradicating these worms can be unfavorable because they are “likely to be the biggest player” in development of the immune system.

While Dr. Ruebush suggests that children should be allowed to play in the dirt, she does not rule out cleanliness. She merely wants to point out that bacteria, viruses and worms are everywhere and not all cause problems.