Interesting article in today's paper on this topic. Will paraphrase some:

Why don't children who live on farms develop many allergies while those who live in cities have a 40%-50% risk of becoming allergic to something?

Why do children who start day care before 6 months of age have little risk of developing asthma - an allergy - while the disease is epidemic among rich, middle-class and poor children who enter child care later?

Why are more and more adults, who never had allergies or asthma as children, suddenly becoming allergic or asthmatic, like the 12 pediatricians who recently developed asthma after going to work in the Bronx, a high asthma-risk area?

Hot on the trail of a worldwide allergy epidemic, scientists asking these questions are homing in on a theory for why allergies have doubled in the past 10-15 years, threatening now to become the biggest health problem in the U.S. and other industralized countries.

The answer to all of the above questions, scientists believe, may simply be that we've become too clean. We don't grow up in dirt and dung anymore and out bodies are failing to develop a balanced immune system early on.

The theory of what causes allergies and asthma is called the hygine hypotheses. It says that our war again germs - from detergents and chlorine to antibiotics and vaccines to antibacterial soaps and, now, antiseptic diapers - has been too successfu..

It use to be said that a child ate a bushel of dirt by the age of f, a thought that makes most parents today cringe.

Forty years ago asthma was still rare, but today is is the most common reason preschoolers and children are admitted to Chicago's Children's Memorial Hospital.

Unwittingly, we seem to have taken away the environmental triggers that turn on a vital arm of the immune system, thereby allowing the allergic response to go haywire, according to the new theory.

The body has two major immune responses. One, called the Th1 response, gets rid of germs and other foreign invaders by building individual antibodies against each one. Then the invaders are attacked, engulfed and destroyed. It's the John Wayne way of doing things, killing only the bad guys.

The other, the Th2 response, is more like a Mafia vendetta. It says: "I will remember who you are and what you did, and I will go after you, your children and your children's children.

Th2 does this by establishing an early warning system for parasites and other invaders, even harmless ones that it has seen before. When one is spotted, immune cells are commanded to fire histamine and other weapons. But these weapons also hit normal cells, causing them to leak, swell and sometimes die, producing the symptoms of allergic rhinitis - also known as hay fever, it is the most common chronic condition of childhood - detmatitis and asthma.

During fetal development the th1 response is turned off. The reason is that this powerful response also is responsible for the rejection of transplanted organs. If it were activated, the fetus' immune system would reject the mother's body, resulting in a spontaneous abortion.

In a sense, most of us are born with a tendency toward allergies.

Scientists now believe that what turns the Th1 response on is exposure to certain types of germs after birth, typically harmless bacteria found in dirt and animal droppings. This has not been a problem during the millions of years of human evelution because babies were born into a sea of germs.

But today, most babies are born into sterile environments. Their bodies do not see many germs, except for airborne viruses like those that cause colds, and their Th1 system does not get activated as quickly as it should. A working Th1 system is important for another reason - it subdues the hyperactive allergic Th1 response.

With Th1 quiescent, the Th2 system, which has been operating during fetal life, continues to be dominant. Then when a baby developes a cold or some other upper respiratory infection, Th1 is not there to fight it, but Th2 is.

As a result, because Th2 is not as proficient at fighting these invaders, it becames a lot easier for common colds that settle deep in the lungs to cause severe inflammation.

The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes deep lung infections and its symptoms mimic those of asthma - wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath. By age 1, 60% of all babies are infected with this bug; by age 2, 100%.

Because the Th1 system is not on guard to destroy the germs causing the infection, the inflammation rages on. Lung tissue becomes damaged from this prolonged attack, creating the domino effect that leads to allergies and asthma.

------------

An interesting theory. I did not grow up in a sterile enviornment and I don't have any allergies, nor do my brother or sisters. Nieces and nephews do.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 14, 2000

Answers

Yeah interesting but not always applicable-I grew up as rural as you get,milk from the cow,bare feet,dirty house(oops- sorry mom,but she was too busy growing animals,vegs,raising kids,cooking, canning,etc to have time to be spotless).

I have very severe allergies,and I now know I had them as a child,as well.We just didn't know there was anything like an allergy then.

I did go down hill after getting the mumps so bad I almost died when I was five.And I lived in a house with a coal furnace,and I'm allergic to petroleum products.And people in our area and my folks started using petro chemicals abt that time-the fifties.And I do much better when I'm eating organic produce from our own garden and wild meat from out nonpesticide farm.

Maybe they are barking up the wrong tree and need to look at how petro chemicals are weakening our immune systems, for example, Just my two cents.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), November 14, 2000.

Ken, I read this theory before also, was last year I believe. Makes a lot of sense to me, but some allergies are predisposed genetically, no matter what the environment exposes you to. Both my parents grew up on farms, definitely not serile, and my brother and I grew up playing in the woods, eating our share of dirt and all, but we all seem to have grass and leaf pollen allergies, as well as lactose intolerance from a young age on.

There is a definite connection between exposure to environmental air pollutants and increased asthma however, here in the Ohio River valley, we have the highest rate of respiratory disease death, and also including childhood asthma rates, due to the coal fired power plants that line the shores of the River, make sure you live upwind of the River because of that. The soft coal burning plants have not yet complied with the Clean Air Act, they need to comply ( the technology is there, but it is expensive), or shut down, they are killing too many people to be allowed to continue spewing out their poisons. Annie in SE OH.

-- Annie Miller (annie@1st.net), November 14, 2000.

Sharon, a big I second your opinion on the petrochemical poisoning, people do not realize the effect they have on every living element on our planet. Annie in SE OH.

-- Annie Miller (annie@1st.net), November 14, 2000.

I also grew up in the country--homegrown food, barefeet, etc. Me and several of my brothers have pretty bad allergies, yet my parents do not have any allergies. My son has bad allergies, also. My husband's chiropracter seems to think that childhood immunizations are playing a part in so many people developing allergies, along with all the chemicals in our environment.

-- vicki g. (thga76@aol.com), November 14, 2000.

I think a major factor is central heating and airconditioning. Also the over abundance of upholstered furniture and carpeting. If you will remember, most folks in the thirties, forties and fifties had a lot less of that. Also, I agree with the petrochemicals. If you look around you it is difficult to find anything now that isn't made at least in part with petrochemicals, from baby bottles to clothes to bedsheets to dishes to packaging for our foods, furniture, padding on the furniture, etc. The list is endless.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), November 14, 2000.

I'd have to agree with all of you at least to a point. But I'd say the biggest problem is what 'they've" done to our food, water and air and all the unnecessary medicaine "they" push down or throats and other places. All the brain washing that "they've" done to us so we'll think we can't live without their wondrous ways. I think that alot of illness today is allergic reaction, or the body trying to heal itself.

Do you realize just how much people hold on to what's bad for them just because they're afraid to let go. And who puts that fear in their heads?.....

And why do they put it there?.....

When you stop and think about it, homesteaders should be healthier than others.

And if you think you can't live without all that chemical stuff, just ask Dee, Bonnie, Sonda, Sissy, Sharon and me and several others.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), November 14, 2000.

For far several alternate theories have been advanced on the forum:

- Early, and constant, exposure to petro-chemicals.

- Air pollution.

- Central heat and air (perhaps this keeps kids indoors more?)

- Genetic susceptibility.

I'm sure I ate my bushel of dirt before the age of five. Really didn't have much exposure to petro-chemicals until probably a teenager. As a young child I remember manure fights in the dairy cow pastures. Mom made us go soak in the creek and then strip naked for a hose bath before being allowed in the house.

Grew up in either rural Wisconsin or Florida, where air pollution wasn't a problem.

Wasn't exposed to air conditioning until a young adult, although several of the farmhouses we lived in heated with coal.

Don't seem to have a genetic susceptibility, at least through my generation.

Maybe I just dumb ass lucky!

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 14, 2000.

Interesting theories, probably a good basis in fact for all of them. I did not see one of the primary causes of allergies, in my opinion. The LACK of good ol' mothers milk. All her painstakenly developed antibodies are passes to the child through her natural milk. With the lake of breast feeding nowdays, it is a wonder there are not more sick folks.

-- JLS in NW AZ (stalkingbull007@AOL.com), November 14, 2000.

I too believe that a lot of the medical problems we are seeing today are from chemicals we have put in our bodies. The first major problem was all of the immunizations we give children. These hurt the immune system because it tries to do the work the immune system should do for itself and throws it all off whack. This is being proven in dogs and there is quite a bit of information on the impact that immunizations is having on the immune system of dogs.

Another major contributor is the chlorine and flouride that is being put in our tap water. I don't drink the water from a tap and haven't for about five years.

Another major contributor, of course, is the chemicals that are on our food. I am now in the process of going to totally organic to eliminate those chemicals from my everyday life.

Fourthly is the chemicals we ingest as "medicine". I can accept short term medicine like antibiotics for a bacterial infection but the long term taking of medicine for everything and anything and then the combining of these medicines is also causing problems with our bodies' own ability to heal itself. My great aunt who had no medical problems, at the age of 94 when she came to stay with my parents, went to see the family doctor at my mom's insistence so he would be familiar with her if she got sick. The doctor asked her to what did she attribute her long life and good health. She promptly replied, "Not seeing doctors." I truly believe there is a lot of truth in that. I recognize that there are some times that we do need their help but Americans are way overmedicated.

We all need to take charge of our own lives/health and make some decisions for ourselves. Get rid of the chemicals we are ingesting.

That's my two cents. Incidentally, I am in excellent health with no allergies, etc. and am very intent on staying that way. I also recognize that there is a genetic factor involved as well and luckily I have two very healthy parents who are in their eighties. I hope they have passed the right genes on to me.

-- Colleen (pyramidgreatdanes@erols.com), November 14, 2000.

JLS-Lack of breastfeeding was the other part I forgot to post.I asked mom if we were breastfed and she gave an emphatic No!!!. It was discouraged.All my family has allergies of varying degrees,but us three youngest have it the worse,and we spent the most time in the coal furnace hot air heated house.Two older spend their early childhood in wood heated summer house.

My youngest brother could not wear polyester(petro based) without breaking out in hives.He drove truck and had to quit bc of the diesel fumes making him very ill.I will get an asthma attack from gas fumes or asphalt fumes.All petro products.So I really see this as one of the big problems.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), November 14, 2000.

JLS:

I do know if a calf doesn't get colostrum either they are going to die on you, whatever you do to help, or they will always be poor- doers.

Some months ago saw results of an experiment to where a newborn baby was placed on the mother's stomach. Within an hour it had wiggled its was up to a nipple and got plugged in.

Don't know if I was breast-fed, at least briefly. Will have to ask my oldest sister.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), November 14, 2000.

Ken, In 1966, I was one of those kids in Chicago being treated at CMH. I had 30 or 40 alergies. When Dad moved us to Alabama, the majority of them went away. The alergist at CMH theorized it was the moving out of the Chicago environment (pollutants, etc). My family and I believe it was instead, the result of exposure to the "dirty" country atmosphere and resulting immunity buildup that remedied my allergies. When I moved to Huntsville to a semi white collar job and apartment, the majority of my allergies returned within 1 year (I was inside all the time). When, I moved the 40 miles back home and got back to my outdoor lifestyle, the allergies subsided again. My only conclusion is "The healing powers of dirt!".

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), November 14, 2000.

Here is another theory I read about in Scientific American (I think, might have been Popular Science or another mainstream science mag).

More and more of our water supply is being piped around our houses in PVC pipe, the study showed that even the minute traces (in the parts per billion) of the chemical compounds leached out of the pipes were enough to make test animals's (rats and pigs) endocrine systems to go subtly wrong in a large number of test cases. Occasionally a test animal would get terribly sick suddenly, as if a trigger point had been finally reached.

They think that the reason it happens is that the chemical compounds mimic the animals own hormones and chemical messangers that turn on, off or moderate the animals endocrinal system.

That article scared the hell out of me because once I thought about it, virtually every single part of every mainstream Americans diet is wrapped in - or in close contact with - plastic of one sort or another. After I read it I went and threw out the plastic pitcher I keep cold water in the fridge in and went and got a glass one.

-- Dave (AK) (daveh@ecosse.net), November 14, 2000.

Doesn't water just taste better in a glass?

My parents smoked from pregnancy till I left the house and are still going strong. My lungs must be so black. I can't stay in their house for more then 10 minutes before I get sick. Then I smell for a while after. That was probably the start of my problem. The new house was just the straw for the camel with my illness. I think the tendency to get sick also runs in the genes, like cancer. If your family is prone to allergies, the child is too.

I believe that pesticides and preservatives are what the problem is. Did you know the preservatives in foods are made of petroleum too? How about all these kids with ADD and ADHD? The hormones and medications don't help either.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), November 14, 2000.

Boy,alot of information to digest.But I think a combination of alot of the above things are at the bottom of things.Synergistic effect.Lack of breast feeding combined with petrochenical products like plastic,preservatives,pesticides,coal,etc,more polluted environment overall,too much time spent inside in an even more polluted environment(I am worse inside and indoor air quality is often very"pollute") and then of course a genetic tendency to have aggressive immune system in response to certain triggers. Canary in the coalmine kind of person.

Two more possible "triggers" I read about recently are really bad viral infection and longterm pain killer use,just to add two more.

Life is a marvelously complex and interesting creation,is it not?

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), November 14, 2000.

From reading all the posts, it seems as though all could be summed up as 'the farther we move from nature, the more our bodies respond negatively.' That should tell us that we, as homesteaders, are on the right track. I know from teaching school that most of the students in my classes were medicated. In my opinion, it was unneccesary. Most of the mothers ran to the doctors on a weekly basis every time their child sneezed. Here, in Utah, we have the highest rate, in the United States, of prescriptions for Ritalin and Prozac! Very scary to me. I had students in every class who were on both of those medications. Very few really needed them and I could not tell the difference. But, I knew of teachers that advised the parents of every child who did not conform, to take the child to the doctor and DEMAND Ritalin. And everytime a child became depressed because of normal events in their life, friend problems etc, they DEMANDED Prozac prescriptions. The parents assauged their guilt, for not being there for their children etc., with doctor's visits and medications. So many students who were deliquents were given meds instead of time and attention and natural punishments. We need to allow ourselves and our children to experience the normal vissitudes of life and return to living in a natural enviroment. I only wish that more people understood this. It is almost impossible to live this way.

-- Cheryl (bramblecottage@hotmail.com), November 15, 2000.

Another possible (probable) factor is stress. Just sending young children out of the home to school is stressing them. Add day care, after-school activities, family marital problems, etc. I know from my own experience that I can think I'm handling a bad situation very calmly, but within a day or two, sometimes less, my body will be reacting adversely. I started a new job a little over three months ago, and am on a very un-natural schedule (working 5 pm to 1:30 am). Within days I started getting joint pain (a usual reaction to stress for me). Within a month a red patch started growing on my arm -- I think it's psoriasis (an autoimmune disease -- I'm seeing the doctor tomorrow). Possibly all the so-called hyperactivity is also a stress- related problem from an unnatural lifestyle. Plus the wrong kinds of foods and other environmental problems already mentioned. I've been looking through the on-line photo listings of the thousands of children available for adoption, and was grieved to see that most of them are on medication for ADHD. If we are able to adopt a family of these children, I would immediately remove the medication -- I wonder how long it would take to see results from improved diet and a quieter farm lifestyle? (No TV or video games, which I am sure are another contributing factor.)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), November 15, 2000.

Kathleen, try Evening Primrose oil capsules, and Flaxseed oil capsules, for the skin trouble. Also, an Arnica ointment might help. I had a small patch on my right foot only, Iv'e been using a product called "Crack Cream" that has made it go away, the main ingredient in it is Arnica extract. Most drugstores, or Walmart, carry it. Annie in SE OH.

-- Annie Miller (annie@1st.net), November 15, 2000.

Annie, when you said to try evening primrose oil capsules and flaxseed oil capsules, did you mean internally or rubbed on the red patch? The doctor doesn't think it looks like psoriasis, and she checked to see if it might be some kind of a fungus, and it isn't that either. She didn't know what it was, gave me a prescription of something to try (some kind of cortisone cream, probably -- I haven't got it yet), and said if that didn't work in two weeks, to call for a referral to a dermatologist! I think it's quit growing already, so even if it does go away, it may just be because it was ready to go on it's own anyway!! :-)

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), November 17, 2000.

I think there are several factors involved in the increase of many diseases and health conditions we are now seeing. I find them interesting reading. Conditions such as autism are now believed to be caused by immunizations or pollutants. Remember Love Canal? We used to live about 40 miles away.

But.... I will say this, any researcher can collect data to create a study and then through complex mathematical statistical formulas can manipulate that data to meet their hypotheses and research standards. In other words, don't believe everything you read. theres an old saying about that but I can't remember it right now, not enough caffine yet. LOL

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), November 17, 2000.

Bernice, a scientific study is only accepted by the medical community that is duplicable by anyone, in similar conditions, anywhere. That is the reason new ideas are so slow to come to the forefront. Clinical trails and tests are double blind, placebo controlled, and a contol group must be used, a painstakingly slow process. If the information has been published in a respectable journal, such as JAMA, the NJM, the NIH, or the CDC, you can be sure it has been verified, and re-verified many, many times. However, people are infinitely variable, and results sometimes are different in some people. That cannot be predicted. Annie in SE OH.

-- Annie Miller (annie@1st.net), November 17, 2000.

Kathleen, you take the capsules internally, sorry, I should have specified that point. Goldenseal or chapparal leaf salve will also help it go away, applied topically. Annie in SE OH.

-- Annie Miller (annie@1st.net), November 17, 2000.

March 20, 2001

REFLECTIONS

Our House Wasn't Dirty Enough?

By DENISE GRADY

• House Mice May Contribute to Asthma Attacks (Dec. 12, 2000) • Reactions: Getting a Handle on Asthma and Aspirin (Nov. 21, 2000) • Patterns: Childhood Asthma and Urban Geography (Oct. 3, 2000) • Children's Health Home • Join a Discussion on Children's Health ack in the 1980's, when my husband and I found out that our two sons had asthma, we assumed our slobbish ways were to blame. Dust balls and cat dander were the big crimes then, and we were guilty on both counts.

Microscopic insects called dust mites, and their droppings, even more microscopic (one would hope), were said to cause asthma. So were bits of skin flaking off pets. We must have been wading through invisible, knee-high piles of mite manure and molecules of cat.

We became soldiers in the war against this disgusting unseen menace. We stripped the boys' bedroom of carpets and curtains and stuffed toys (dust collectors, all), wrapped the mattresses and pillows in special covers that were supposed to repel dust (but that I found merely repulsive), installed an air-cleaning machine and even moved the storybooks. By the time we finished, the room looked as if it had been decorated by a prison warden.

It was like joining a weird new religion with an endless list of sins and purification rites. We cleaned the boys' room compulsively and quit using their closets because the asthma books warned that the mere opening and closing of closet doors would stir up pestilential clouds of dust. We fretted about whether to open the windows, which would let in fresh air (good) but also pollen (bad). Should we use a vacuum cleaner? It would suck up some dust (good), but also blow some around (bad). A humidifier? Moist air soothed the lungs (good), but also helped mold grow (bad).

We banished our poor, hapless pair of cats, first to the basement, then the garage, and finally to someone else's house.

We had no idea whether any of these fanatical acts ever did a bit of good. Deep down, we wondered whether they were worth the trouble. Our sons still had asthma attacks. But, we thought, maybe they would be even worse if we stopped scrubbing. We were afraid to quit, though eventually we realized that we could make ourselves crazy with this stuff, and we began to run out of steam.

With all our bumbling, though, there was one thing we knew we had done right. Colds, flu and other respiratory viruses played havoc with asthma, and so we were glad we had never sent our kids to day care, where they might have caught one germ after another and never stopped coughing and wheezing. At least we had spared them that, we thought smugly.

Now, 15 years later, it seems we did everything wrong. Dust, germs and cats may be our friends, the medical journals say. The new theory is the "cleanliness hypothesis," which says that asthma comes on, and is on the rise in America and other rich countries, because overly protective parents keep their houses too clean and deprive their children of exposure to the germs, dirt, toxins and irritants that they need to prepare their little immune systems to take on the world.

A study last August in The New England Journal of Medicine found that children in day care were actually less prone to asthma than those who stayed at home, presumably because the day care kids toughened up by being exposed to germs. Another report, March 10 in The Lancet, said that having a cat might even help prevent asthma in some children.

Does "some children" include mine? Do these studies mean our house was not dirty enough? Should we have had more cats? Imported dander from friends? Should we have put our kids in day care, a nice dirty one full of toddlers with coughs and runny noses?

We will never know. But after years of watching theories come and go, I started taking them with a grain of dust. When my children had trouble breathing, theories did not help. Asthma medicines did. We used them, lots of them, for a long time. We may have dithered about opening the windows or closing them, and we won and lost a thousand fights with dust, but we gave our kids the medicine day in and day out, and got on with our lives.

Today, whether because of our fussing or in spite of it, or just out of sheer luck, both boys seem to have outgrown asthma. Neither one needs medicine anymore.

I still do not know whether dust is friend or foe. My attacks on it are less frequent, and less furious. In the meantime, I look forward to further reports from the medical journals to tell me about all the other things I have done wrong.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), March 20, 2001.

I'll add my two-cents! I realize that my lungs are sensitive due to a childhood illness and also, I inherited problems. When I lived in the city of Appleton, I was diagnosed with chronic bronchitis. ICK! The doctor said I would have to take this dreadful medication the rest of my life. Wiscinsin cities are known for their paper-mills. Okay, we moved to the country and guess what! I have had bronchitis twice. Once, cause I accidently inhaled some plaster dust and recently cause I had a cold. I wonder how many childen has respiratory illness in the city that are caused by pollution.

-- Ardie from WI (a6203@hotmail.com), March 20, 2001.