Why Getting Dirty Can Be Healthy for Children
MP3 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Contributing: Jessica Berman A new study suggests that early exposure to germs strengthens the immune system. That means letting children get a little dirty might be good for their health later in life. The study involved laboratory mice. It found that adult mice raised in a germ-free environment were more likely to develop allergies, asthma and other autoimmune disorders . There are more than eighty disorders where cells that normally defend the body instead attack tissues and organs. They include rheumatoid arthritis, which attacks the joints; Crohn's disease , an inflammatory bowel condition; and juvenile diabetes. Hay fever, a common allergy, is also an autoimmune disorder. Richard Blumberg is a professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts . He says in nineteen eighty-nine, medical researchers sought to explain these diseases with what they called the "hygiene hypothesis." They...