Lack of contact with nature 'increasing allergies'

[xchrom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17952320


Urbanisation is a "lost opportunity" for people to interact with biodiversity, including bacteria

A lack of exposure to a "natural environment" could be resulting in more urban dwellers developing allergies and asthma, research has suggested.

Finnish scientists say certain bacteria, shown to be beneficial for human health, are found in greater abundance in non-urban surroundings.

The microbiota play an important role in the development and maintenance of the immune system, they add.

"There are microbes everywhere, including in the built environment, but the composition is different between natural environments and human-built areas," explained co-author Ilkka Hanski from the University of Helsinki.

"The microbiota in natural environments is more beneficial for us," he told BBC News.

[left coaster]

1. Next behind the glass, is a real blade of grass...

..be careful as you pass.. move along, move along...

[FiveGoodMen]

6. We'd like it to be known ...

the exhibits that were shown
are exclusively our own
all our own, all our own

(because they were privatized, of course)

[Kali]

2. sterilized kids

children NEED to play in the dirt

[freshwest]

9. I agree.

[hedgehog]

3. Ummm - we live in an old dusty farmhouse in the middle of 60 acres of trees and grass -

pines, hardwoods, etc. We have chickens, dogs and cats. We all have assorted allergies including one son with severe asthma who is so allergic to cut grass he has to stay inside with a dust mask when his father mows. (Mowing kicks up pollen, dust and whatever)

Only an anecdote, I know, but I am very skeptical of the "we all live in too sterile conditions" theory of allergies!

[kestrel91316]

4. Doesn't mean the theory is wrong. Your son could very well

be an outlier on the bell curve.

[HuckleB]

5. Yet another good excuse to go backpacking!

[Odin2005]

7. We have advertising to thank for this

Parents are scared into thinking they have to keep their kids in an anti-septic bubble by companies that profit from that obsessive-compulsive paranoia.

[HuckleB]

8. As I noted, it's another great excuse to go backpacking, still...

The study seems to raise more questions than it answers, and the theoretical correlation is far from being proven here. I wonder, in fact, of a factor not considered by the authors. In this day and non-native flora and flauna cover the globe, theoretically increasing the types of plants people are exposed to today compared to 100 years ago. Now that may not translate into a bigger variety of microbes, but those non-native plants may even be more concentrated in urban areas than in rural areas. Thus, one could surmise several other possible correlations.

Yeah, blah blah blah.

[Javaman]

10. The average teaspoon of dirt contains over 100 million microbes...

work the dirt. You will be thankful.

Check out the book "The Viral Storm". It's excellent.

[thucythucy]

11. Loss of contact with reality

seems to me more and more of a problem, whether or not this particular link (less contact with nature=more allergies) turns out to be true.

It amazes me as I walk or drive down the street (especially when walking) to see how few people are actually connected to the reality they walk through. They're either texting, talking on a cell, or listening to an ear plug. At the same time it also seems to me that over the years much of our environment--especially urban and suburban--is becoming more and more ugly. More trash, more unretrieved roadkill, more advertising clutter, more development, more noise--it's no wonder people would prefer to be in their own heads. It's a self-reinforcing spiral--the uglier our environment gets, the more we turn off, the more we turn off, the less likely people are to care about what the real world looks like, and to seek escape in whatever way they can.

I wonder what this means in terms of how we relate to each other, our society, our politics. I wonder too how ugly our world has to become before more of us start paying attention.