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aspiringdoctors:

Nature article.

“Exposure to germs in childhood is thought to help strengthen the immune system and protect children from developing allergies and asthma, but the pathways by which this occurs have been unclear. Now, researchers have identified a mechanism in mice that may explain the role of exposure to microbes in the development of asthma and ulcerative colitis, a common form of inflammatory bowel disease.

In a study published online today in Science¹, the researchers show that in mice, exposure to microbes in early life can reduce the body’s inventory of invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, which help to fight infection but can also turn on the body, causing a range of disorders such as asthma or inflammatory bowel disease.

The study supports the ‘hygiene hypothesis’, which contends that such auto-immune diseases are more common in the developed world where the prevalence of antibiotics and antibacterials reduce children’s exposure to microbes…

…The study also found that a lack of exposure in early life could not be compensated for by introducing the GF mice to a broader range of microbes in adulthood.”

Moral of the story: Let your kids play in the mud. Let them get dirty. It’s good for them!!

A while back I read an op-ed article about how we’re raising a nation of wimps. Kids aren’t allowed to play outside anymore. A few months ago I posted an article about how free play helps child cognitive development. My niece’s school has severely reduced recess. It’s depressing. She gets home and is crazy from being cooped up inside all day. Kids need to play outside, they need to get scraped knees and fall down and get back up.

However, it’s often not their fault; a kid broke their arm on the playground and because that child’s parents threatened to sue the school, they aren’t allowed to run anymore. Isn’t that silly? As the next generation of parents, we can do better.