In 1980s,\u00a0Erika von Mutius, another researcher was also studying the differences between East and West Germany populations and their health. \u00a0Her study brought out some very extraordinary results:<\/p>\n
On November 9, 1989, an unusual opportunity came along: The Berlin Wall fell. For the first time since the 1940s, West Germans could conduct research in the East. Von Mutius, of Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich, seized the opportunity, expanding her study to include Leipzig, a city of 520,000 deep in East Germany.<\/p>\n
The countryside around Leipzig was home to polluting chemical plants and was pocked<\/span> with open-pit coal mines; many residents heated their apartments with coal-burning ovens. It was a perfect experiment: Two groups of children with similar genetic backgrounds, divided by the Iron Curtain into dramatically different environments. If air pollution caused asthma, Leipzig\u2019s kids should be off the charts.<\/p>\n
Working with local doctors, von Mutius studied hundreds of East German schoolchildren. \u201cThe results were a complete surprise,\u201d von Mutius<\/span> says. \u201cIn fact, at first we thought we should re-enter the data.\u201d Young Leipzigers had slightly lower rates of asthma than their Bavarian counterparts\u2014and dramatically less hay fever, a pollen allergy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n******* \u00a0******** \u00a0********
\n******* \u00a0******** \u00a0********<\/p>\nAutoimmune\u00a0Diseases and Development<\/strong><\/p>\n
These studies are bringing out another dimension to the prevalence of Auto-Immune<\/span> diseases and the curse of Development. \u00a0What these researchers are saying is something which may seem totally crazy when you looked at it on surface<\/span>.<\/p>\n
It was the Germ-Laden Dirt<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 that was the major difference between the health situations of the two populations \u2013 one poverty striken<\/span>\u00a0and other wealthy.<\/p>\n
\nBut it was germ-laden dirt that seemed to matter, not air pollution. The children of full-time farmers in rural Switzerland and Bavaria, for example, had far fewer allergies than their non-farming peers. And a study following more than 1,000 babies in Arizona showed that, unless parents also had asthma, living in houses with dogs reduced the chances of wheezing and allergies later in life. Researchers proposed that the more microbial agents that children are exposed to early in life, the less likely they are to develop allergies and autoimmune diseases later on. Studies also showed that baby mice kept in sterile environments were more likely to face autoimmune disease, seeming to back what came to be called the \u201chygiene hypothesis.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
What the scientists are saying is that the \u201cDirt and germs\u201d exposure makes the difference in the first few years itself. \u00a0It is then that the \u201cArmy\u201d of body\u2019s immunity system<\/span> really gets ready and trained.<\/p>\n
\nAt birth, our immune cells make up an aggressive army with no sense of who its enemies are. But the more bad guys the immune system is exposed to during life\u2019s early years, the more discerning it gets. \u201cThe immune system is programmed within the first two years of life,\u201d says Knip. \u201cWith less early infection, the immune system has too little to do, so it starts looking for other targets.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Studies are finding that allergies are significantly lesser in poorer societies than in the wealthier. \u00a0And it is no longer possible to blame it on \u201cGenes\u201d or \u201cRace\u201d; because people from all races and backgrounds in the developed world are falling prey to allergies.<\/p>\n
\nIn places where living conditions resemble this \u201cpre-hygiene\u201d past\u2014rural parts of Africa, South America and Asia\u2014the disorders remain uncommon. It can be tempting to dismiss the differences as genetic. But disease rates in the industrialized world have risen too fast, up to 3 or 4 percent a year in recent decades, to be explained by evolutionary changes in DNA. \u201cYou can see quite clearly in a pre-hygiene situation you don\u2019t see allergic disease,\u201d says Thomas Platts-Mills, an allergy specialist at the University of Virginia. \u201cMove to a hygiene society, and it does not matter your race or ethnicity\u2014allergy rises.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Are Developed Societies too clean for their own good?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Is the developed lifestyle INVENTING diseases? \u00a0Diseases that can be avoided if one lived in and with nature? \u00a0It certainly seems so.<\/p>\n
Sanitized life makes one feel good for a time, but it is does have<\/span> the impact of dumbing down the body. \u00a0I remember during my childhood \u2013 school time \u2013 in Delhi, I would deliberately take cold water bath even<\/span> in winters. \u00a0I would very rarely catch those bad colds. \u00a0On the other hand, my siblings would catch really bad colds over the winters.<\/p>\n
Ever since I have been in the US, I have chosen never to get the Flu shots, to make sure my body does not \u201cforget\u201d to fight its own devils. \u00a0I do get Flu once in a while, but its<\/span> not worse than what others have despite the Flu shots.<\/p>\n
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