Yoors
Premium
Corona hygiene an attack on immunity?
Translated from Dutch. View the original post
here
If this lasts for years, there may be an effect.” More than ever, today we sanitize our hands and everything they come into contact with, but what does this excessive hygiene mean for our immunity and that of our children?
Jump in at the bakery for a minute? Disinfect your hands. Quick past the supermarket? Hands under the disinfection pole. Go have a coffee? Oh, yeah, just press the alcohol gel pump again. Come home, make dinner, visit a toilet? Always washing hands... And so it goes on.
For years we have been told that we live too clean in the West, but in coronatia we now live very clean in the fight against SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses. Some are therefore wondering whether the current hygienic recommendations can have a negative impact on our immunity.
Jump in at the bakery for a minute? Disinfect your hands. Quick past the supermarket? Hands under the disinfection pole. Go have a coffee? Oh, yeah, just press the alcohol gel pump again. Come home, make dinner, visit a toilet? Always washing hands... And so it goes on.
For years we have been told that we live too clean in the West, but in coronatia we now live very clean in the fight against SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses. Some are therefore wondering whether the current hygienic recommendations can have a negative impact on our immunity.
Immunologist Bart Lambrecht of UGent/VIB reasses us. 'We do wash our hands a little more than usual, but that is still not enough to allegedly affect our immunity. It is also not that our hands are completely sterile due to excessive hand hygiene. If they were, surgeons could perform surgery without gloves. In addition, the hands barely cover two to five percent of our body surface area, which is just a small particle of the entire microbiome. It is true that the many use of soap and alcohol gels affects the skin barrier, so that the allergens present in the environment, such as dust mites, penetrate through the barrier and cause a temporary eczema surge. '
If the measures persist for a long time, we might see an effect.
If the measures persist for a long time, we might see an effect.
But what about the so-called “hygiene theory”, which states that more hygiene and potable water in the industrialized world undermine our defence training and are causing the increasing number of cases of asthma and allergies? Will the present collective blemish not confuse our immunity even more?
'The hygiene theory only relates to the first years of life', explains Bart Lambrecht. 'That is the crucial moment when the whole immune system is built up. It is in that short period of time that a child learns to deal with the different bacteria present in his environment. When a child comes into contact with other children and animals too little, his defenses are disrupted and react excessively, sometimes even to his own body in the form of autoimmune diseases. It may seem like a contradiction, but by not getting into contact with a wide variety of germs, the immune system is going to try too hard and react to harmless substances. '
More allergies due to coronary hygiene?
Then let children get sick well, would you think? That's how you train their immune system for later. Right? That's a misunderstanding, Lambrecht suggests. “Hygiene theory does not say that a child must constantly spend sick in bed during his first years of life in order to gain better defenses. The amount of germs should stimulate the immune system just enough to avoid overreacting to allergens. Compare it to a vaccine in which, due to a small exposure to germs, the body builds up a memory for when a real infection strikes.
Allergies are more common today than before. 30 to 35 percent of Belgians suffer from it today. Before the Second World War, it was only five percent of the population. Nevertheless, Lambrecht, a world authority in the field of research into asthma and allergies, does not think that the coronameasures will lead to even more allergies in the longer term. 'The current measures are too short-lived to have an impact and it is, above all, the first year of life that is crucial for the proper development of immunity. ' But the hygiene measures should not last two years, the immunologist believes. “Then you might start to see an effect.”
By the way, hygiene theory is not the only explanation for the rapid rise of allergies in the Western world in recent decades. More antibiotics are also available, which means that children experience less banal infectious diseases. Because we started living in better insulated houses, the humidity level is higher and the dust mites population and hence dust mite allergy increases. Air pollution makes natural allergens more dangerous and climate change makes our summers warmer and drier, and the polling season lasts longer.
'The hygiene theory only relates to the first years of life', explains Bart Lambrecht. 'That is the crucial moment when the whole immune system is built up. It is in that short period of time that a child learns to deal with the different bacteria present in his environment. When a child comes into contact with other children and animals too little, his defenses are disrupted and react excessively, sometimes even to his own body in the form of autoimmune diseases. It may seem like a contradiction, but by not getting into contact with a wide variety of germs, the immune system is going to try too hard and react to harmless substances. '
More allergies due to coronary hygiene?
Then let children get sick well, would you think? That's how you train their immune system for later. Right? That's a misunderstanding, Lambrecht suggests. “Hygiene theory does not say that a child must constantly spend sick in bed during his first years of life in order to gain better defenses. The amount of germs should stimulate the immune system just enough to avoid overreacting to allergens. Compare it to a vaccine in which, due to a small exposure to germs, the body builds up a memory for when a real infection strikes.
Allergies are more common today than before. 30 to 35 percent of Belgians suffer from it today. Before the Second World War, it was only five percent of the population. Nevertheless, Lambrecht, a world authority in the field of research into asthma and allergies, does not think that the coronameasures will lead to even more allergies in the longer term. 'The current measures are too short-lived to have an impact and it is, above all, the first year of life that is crucial for the proper development of immunity. ' But the hygiene measures should not last two years, the immunologist believes. “Then you might start to see an effect.”
By the way, hygiene theory is not the only explanation for the rapid rise of allergies in the Western world in recent decades. More antibiotics are also available, which means that children experience less banal infectious diseases. Because we started living in better insulated houses, the humidity level is higher and the dust mites population and hence dust mite allergy increases. Air pollution makes natural allergens more dangerous and climate change makes our summers warmer and drier, and the polling season lasts longer.
The best thing a mother can do for her baby is to put it in the Maxi-Cosi in a cowshed.
Lambrecht knows the best cards for optimal immunity are available for children born on a farm. “Children who spend their first two years of life on a farm are less likely to develop allergies and autoimmune diseases such as Crohn's disease. Farm dust contains components of dead bacteria called endotoxins. They are in cow dung, among other things. When the cow manure dries up, those endotoxins enter the air, giving a farm its distinctive smell. The best thing a mother can do for her baby is to put it in a cowshed in the Maxi-Cosi.”
Antibiotics, crackling houses, climate change,... They're all the consequences of our progress. However, for some things we better go back to the good old days, when children were still romping in the field or rooting in the sandbox between the cat droppings and in the evening were bathed 'black of the dirt'.
Antibiotics, crackling houses, climate change,... They're all the consequences of our progress. However, for some things we better go back to the good old days, when children were still romping in the field or rooting in the sandbox between the cat droppings and in the evening were bathed 'black of the dirt'.
Because in deep concrete Flanders not everyone grows up on a farm, fortunately there are other ways to make children 'once good dirt'. 'The half of the allergies can be prevented when children grow up in a family with pets', says Lambrecht. “The more pets, the better.”
But the most decisive element in hygiene theory is the size of the family. In our country, it has fallen drastically to 1.6 children per family over the last 50 years. 'A baby is more likely to develop allergies if it ends up in a small family because there is less exposure to infection by brothers and sisters, or by the mother infected by an older child going to childcare. That is exactly what British epidemiologist David Strachan suggested in his original hygiene hypothesis in 1989. '
There is no such thing as a means with a general stimulating effect on the immune system.
Large families living together in agricultural communities and often in contact with nature are matters much more common in developing countries than in regions with Western lifestyles. Lambrecht is therefore convinced that non-Westerners have better immunity and that this could possibly explain why SARS-CoV-2, for example, strikes less hard in Africa. 'The way in which the immune system learns to deal with infections in the first years of life also has an influence on the sickness ability of a virus. For example, our studies show that experimental animals first exposed to farm dust did not get sick of infection with a lung virus while a clean laboratory mouse did. I think that's exactly what happens with covid-19. Children in agricultural communities in Africa and India are no less infected with the new coronavirus, but they are less sick of it.”
Weaker from the mouth mask?
Another important hygiene measure that we faced this year, to the great displeasure of many, is the mouth mask. Now that the schools have reopened, children sometimes sit up to eight hours a day with a mouthcap on. The mouthmask duty is currently under discussion because it causes complaints such as headaches and potentially poses a major threat to the development of children. Coronate teachers even claim that the accumulated CO2 leads to a toxic acidification of the organism that would also affect our immunity.
Lambrecht, who is also a pulmonologist, puts the finishing touches on the i. 'This is one of the many things in this coronacrisis that are sent into the world without much scientific substantiation', he sighs. 'Toxic acidification with CO2 is the reverse process of hyperventilation. In principle, the phenomenon is possible when wearing a mouth mask, but only in conditions that are so extreme and where the mouth mask fits so perfectly to the face that you collapse after a few hours. Most mouth masks, like the surgical ones that everyone wears, allow air to pass through the sides, making toxic acidification unlikely.
“Boost “your immune system? Forget it
Finally, there has to be another misunderstanding. Now that we are overloaded with all kinds of tips and ways to boost our immunity, Lambrecht believes that this is a futile effort. 'There is no such thing as a means with a general stimulating effect on the immune system. You can “train” your defenses by giving it repeated stimuli, for example with the annual flu vaccine. Anyone who receives a different variant of the flu vaccine every year will ultimately be better protected than someone who has never received a flu vaccine because the risk of cross-reaction is higher. But that's not a “boost” for your immune system in its entirety, it only protects against variants of the flu. Boosting your defenses is due to natural infections in your first years of life, 'concludes Lambrecht.
But the most decisive element in hygiene theory is the size of the family. In our country, it has fallen drastically to 1.6 children per family over the last 50 years. 'A baby is more likely to develop allergies if it ends up in a small family because there is less exposure to infection by brothers and sisters, or by the mother infected by an older child going to childcare. That is exactly what British epidemiologist David Strachan suggested in his original hygiene hypothesis in 1989. '
There is no such thing as a means with a general stimulating effect on the immune system.
Large families living together in agricultural communities and often in contact with nature are matters much more common in developing countries than in regions with Western lifestyles. Lambrecht is therefore convinced that non-Westerners have better immunity and that this could possibly explain why SARS-CoV-2, for example, strikes less hard in Africa. 'The way in which the immune system learns to deal with infections in the first years of life also has an influence on the sickness ability of a virus. For example, our studies show that experimental animals first exposed to farm dust did not get sick of infection with a lung virus while a clean laboratory mouse did. I think that's exactly what happens with covid-19. Children in agricultural communities in Africa and India are no less infected with the new coronavirus, but they are less sick of it.”
Weaker from the mouth mask?
Another important hygiene measure that we faced this year, to the great displeasure of many, is the mouth mask. Now that the schools have reopened, children sometimes sit up to eight hours a day with a mouthcap on. The mouthmask duty is currently under discussion because it causes complaints such as headaches and potentially poses a major threat to the development of children. Coronate teachers even claim that the accumulated CO2 leads to a toxic acidification of the organism that would also affect our immunity.
Lambrecht, who is also a pulmonologist, puts the finishing touches on the i. 'This is one of the many things in this coronacrisis that are sent into the world without much scientific substantiation', he sighs. 'Toxic acidification with CO2 is the reverse process of hyperventilation. In principle, the phenomenon is possible when wearing a mouth mask, but only in conditions that are so extreme and where the mouth mask fits so perfectly to the face that you collapse after a few hours. Most mouth masks, like the surgical ones that everyone wears, allow air to pass through the sides, making toxic acidification unlikely.
“Boost “your immune system? Forget it
Finally, there has to be another misunderstanding. Now that we are overloaded with all kinds of tips and ways to boost our immunity, Lambrecht believes that this is a futile effort. 'There is no such thing as a means with a general stimulating effect on the immune system. You can “train” your defenses by giving it repeated stimuli, for example with the annual flu vaccine. Anyone who receives a different variant of the flu vaccine every year will ultimately be better protected than someone who has never received a flu vaccine because the risk of cross-reaction is higher. But that's not a “boost” for your immune system in its entirety, it only protects against variants of the flu. Boosting your defenses is due to natural infections in your first years of life, 'concludes Lambrecht.
Source: Knack
3
- Report this post
