Think about how many times your mom told you to not eat the dirt outside. For many of us, it was a sin to show up to the dinner table with dirt on your hands. Research now shows that those germs may have not been so bad for us. In fact, new studies reveal that the obsession with cleanliness may actually contribute to the rise in allergies, asthma and inflammatory bowel disease among your kids.
Our immune system needs to come into contact with everything in order to become strong enough to resist disease. Although it seems like the right thing to do to protect your children from germs, it actually may hinder their chance from fighting off specific illnesses.
Studies prove that children raised on farms experience fewer allergies and autoimmune problems. Those who also spend more time outdoors with bugs, worms and other natural elements have a greater overall immune system. Exposure in these environments causes our bodies to adapt.
This research also suggests that children these days may just be too clean. Exposure to microbes early on can help to train immune cells to resist disease later on in life. The cells affected most in the lungs and colon are crucial during early stages due to the fact that exposure is not the same later on as an adult because they cannot be recreated.
Although it is not necessary to feed dirt to your children, don’t obsess with them out there playing in it. They instinctively know that it is beneficial to them. The dirtier they get, the healthier they may be.
– The Alternative Daily
