Does Exposure to Common Bacteria Lead to Less Illnesses?

[Alesak]

I'm having this endless dispute with my mother: she cleans her computer keyboard everyday, is careful not to put her handbag on the table etc... in the name of keeping bacteria away. This kinda makes sense, since bacteria can cause illnesses, but...

I don't see any reason why it couldn't be the other way, meaning that more exposure to common bacteria could lead to less illnesses. After all, immune system learns from the bacteria entering the body and therefore could be better prepared for illness if it saw the same bacteria before(but in smaller numbers).

Does anyone know which way it is?

 

[HallsofIvy]

There are, in fact, some bacteria in the human body that are necessary for digestion.

And, I have read that the great polio epidemic of the early to mid twentieth century was largely a result of increased cleanliness. Rather than every one being exposed to weakened virus early in life and developing an immunity, a few people were exposed to the full strength virus without immumnity.

From http://polio.emedtv.com/polio/polio-history.html:
"In the immediate pre-vaccine era, improved sanitation allowed less frequent exposure and increased the age of primary infection. Boosting of immunity from natural exposure became more infrequent, and the number of susceptible people increased, which ultimately resulted in the occurrence of polio epidemics, with 13,000 to 20,000 paralytic cases reported annually."

 

[Alesak]

Interesting. It reminds me of this clip of Goerge Carlin.

One comment on youtube says

well he's right when he says that your imune system needs pratice,but I've watched enough house m.d to know that it's not because it will get "lazy", but the oposite.It will get so strong and bored that will attack your own system, causing the famous "auto-imune diseases".Except for lupus, it's never lupus.

What is one to make of this? I seriously doubt there is answer to my question.

 

[jedishrfu]

there a recent stat that says 90% of the human body is bacteria and the remaining 10% is human.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/a...ns-carry-more-bacterial-cells-than-human-ones

and wikipedia has a detailed breakdown of all things in the body:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_of_the_human_body

 

[lisab]

There is a circumstantial link between asthma/eczema and being too clean. It's called the "hygiene hypothesis":

...as we make the shift from dirt to sterile that you're changing the direction of your immune response. This causes diseases.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/p...=can-it-be-bad-to-be-too-clean-the-h-11-04-06

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Here is a brief article on how bacteria is vital to our health. I bought the full audio version a few weeks ago and it was really interesting.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ultimate-social-network-bacteria-protects-health

 

[mazinse]

Alesak are you going to have a philosophical debate on this now. Your mother is doing a commendable thing keeping her house clean in order to make sure her family is healthy. The fact you, yourself probably do go outside for whatever means you have already exposed yourself to the bacteria you want your body to train against. If she wants to keep the bacteria that you are exposed to from getting in then that's her thing.

And if this still doesn't convince you then go hang out at the subway station for a day and then come back.

 

[DaveC426913]

I agree with mazinse.

While it's true that you don't want to expunge bacteria from your life, cleaning heavily infested areas such as keyboards is still good hygiene.

Lots of food and oils and other crap cling to kbs, and the stuff growing in there is not necessarily good for you.

Leave her be.

 

[Alesak]

Agreed, it's best to leave it be. I just wish she would listen to me more. She spends a lot of time with apparently pointless cleaning, in belief it will keep the family healthy, yet then she goes and eats large brick of salami or sausage.

OT:
I think she is in high-risk stroke group, based on fat accumulating around waist, high blood pressure and sedentary work. I told her all that and it's her choice now, but it saddens me to see she doesn't lift finger to prevent stroke. But it doesn't seem to be a rare behavior, I knew a person who had one lung removed but continued smoking, or another who has diabetes but keeps getting even fatter. It would be interesting to see how these people think about it, because it seems like madness to me.

 

[mazinse]

does she have a doctor to follow up with. Not only is stroke a danger but heart disease is more more worrysome, especially since heart disease onset is younger than stroke.

 

[DaveC426913]

She spends a lot of time with apparently pointless cleaning
...
sedentary work.

Well, clearly she's not completely sedentary.