Research Closer to Finding Reason for Allergy Epidemic

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Friday, 15 April 2005

There have been many theories suggested to explain the enormous rise in allergies in the Western world but at last it seems scientists may be getting closer to understanding the reasons.

An article in New Scientist 16 April 05 takes an in-depth look at the complex picture that is emerging. It was thought that the eradication of childhood illnesses may have left our immune systems with nothing to fight. Now, however, it seems that it is the mass of harmless microbes that we used to come into contact with that, in some way that we have yet to understand, kept our immune systems from being overly aggressive.

This may be borne out by the fact that children growing up on farms, and especially with access to the cowshed, have a five- to ten-fold decrease chance of suffering from asthma and other allergies but no increased risk of sepsis or other serious infection.

Although other genetic factors are also indicated it would seem that the old adage ‘you have to eat a bit of dirt before you die’ holds some truth.