SEED on the hygiene hypothesis

By tsmith on July 18, 2006.

I've mentioned previously the "hygiene hypothesis", but don't think I've ever really discussed it. SEED writer Emily Anthes has a new article on the topic at the homepage.

More like this

Interesting articles (although I'm not sure the writer of the first one linked really means "microorganisms" in all cases) but they both miss what I thought was the most fascinating aspect of the work with intestinal worms. Challenges to the human immune system are one benefit, perhaps, but the fact that these worms have been shown to actively alter the response of our immune systems is the real 'wow' idea for me.

Carl Zimmer's book "Parasite Rex" has a good explanation of this concept.

Interesting overview. I particularly enjoyed, "You don't want to trade sniffles for typhoid".

I've never seen the suggestion about the possible relationship to changes in diet before - this should be testable in those countries that have (comparatively recently) adopted more processed foods into their diets.

Thanks for posting to this.

Regards - Shinga

Advertisment

Donate

ScienceBlogs is where scientists communicate directly with the public. We are part of Science 2.0, a science education nonprofit operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Please make a tax-deductible donation if you value independent science communication, collaboration, participation, and open access.

You can also shop using Amazon Smile and though you pay nothing more we get a tiny something.

Science 2.0

Science Codex

More by this author

Movin'...

October 18, 2017

As several others have already noted, after almost 12 years, Scienceblogs is shutting down at month's end. Though I've done most of my writing elsewhere over the last few years, I'd certainly like to keep the archives of this blog up somewhere, and maintain it as a place to post random musings that…

The high cost of academic reimbursement

September 29, 2017

Spring, 2004. I was in the second year of my post-doc, with kids ages 4 and 2. Because I was no longer a student, the full brunt of my student loan payments had hit me, which were collectively almost double the cost of my mortgage. To put it generously, money was tight. Truthfully, we were broke as…

Vaccine advocacy 101

July 26, 2017

I recently finished a 2-year stint as an American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer. It's an excellent program--ASM pays all travel expenses for lecturers, who speak at ASM Branch meetings throughout the country. I was able to attend Branch meetings from California and Washington in…

Is there such a thing as an "evolution-proof" drug? (part the third)

May 31, 2017

A claim that scientists need to quit making: I've written about these types of claims before. The first one--a claim that antimicrobial peptides were essentially "resistance proof," was proven to be embarrassingly wrong in a laboratory test. Resistance not only evolved, but it evolved…

HIV's "Patient Zero" was exonerated long ago

October 27, 2016

The news over the past 24 hours has exclaimed over and over: HIV's Patient Zero Exonerated How scientists proved the wrong man was blamed for bringing HIV to the U.S. Researchers Clear "Patient Zero" from AIDS Origin Story H.I.V. Arrived in the U.S. Long Before ‘Patient Zero’ Gaetan Dugas: "patient…