Everyone has heard that it’s good for a child to play in the sandpit or put safe objects in their mouths. All of this prompts them to develop antibodies against bacteria and other microorganisms in the future. As such, some infectious disease experts say intermittent exposure to infectious agents can be healthy. Does this mean that too much hygiene is bad? Understand.
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How harmful can hygiene be?
There is a maxim in life that says “Anything taken in excess is rather bad”. If you think about it, you can deduce that even hygiene can have a limit to be considered 100% healthy. No wonder some diseases were considered diseases of the rich in the past.
The 1872 British Journal of Homeopathy even commented that “hay fever is considered an aristocratic disease, and there can be no doubt about it.” Hay fever is a generic term for seasonal allergies to pollen and other airborne irritants, better known today as allergic rhinitis.
With this notion that hay fever was a disease of nobility, British scientists were right when they argued that a little less hygiene can be good for health. After all, the aristocracy was isolated in cleaner places and without much exposure to irritants that caused “hay fever” to be contracted more aggressively.
Human evolution has faced more dangerous agents
It should be noted that primitive people lived in much more inhospitable environments than civilized people. The body’s defenses were forged on the basis of excessive contact with all kinds of microorganisms that could exist on Earth.
Of course, hygiene measures are also evolutionary processes that allow people to live longer. Some of them are essential for survival, as the current health crisis has shown.
However, when the hygiene requirement becomes almost hysteria, it is rather harmful. Men and women need to be exposed to some diseases in order for the body to function optimally.
Untrained organisms can react violently
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of children in the United States with food allergies increased by 50% from 1997 to 2011. The increase in skin allergies during this time was 69%, leaving 12.5% of American children with eczema and other irritations.
Food and respiratory allergies increased in line with income levels. More money, which typically correlates with higher education, means a higher risk of allergies. This may reflect differences in who reports such allergies, but it also stems from differences in the environment.
Specialists say that one of the problems lies in the low exposure of the body to the elements that train it to be more efficient.