Too Much Cleanliness Can Make Us Sick

Everyone knows that germs make us sick, right? Yet now come researchers at the Centre for Clinical Microbiology at the University College London who say the absence of germs can also make us sick. HealthDay reports that the researchers, proponents of the "hygiene hypothesism" which argues that reduced exposure to bacteria, viruses and parasites have impaired the immune system's ability to properly respond to environmental challenges, have identified too much cleanliness as a possible cause of several medical problems, including severe allergic reactions, gastrointestinal disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease and Crohn's disease, and autoimmune disorders, such as type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis. HealthDay quotes Dr. Mitchell H. Grayson, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, opining that the hygiene hypothesis is most strongly linked to an increase in allergic diseases and asthma. The health website also reports that Argentinean researchers have shown that intestinal parasites can moderate the progression of multiple sclerosis, and that researchers at the University of Iowa have found that intestinal parasites helped regulate the autoimmune reaction that causes Crohn's disease. Don't forget not to wash your hands.

Read more in HealthDay.