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  • From: Harvey Ussery <boxwood@nelsoncable.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Health and happiness is all down to a roll in the dirt
  • Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2007 18:42:41 -0400


The finding follows separate research by other scientists into the impact
of bringing children up in "overhygienic" conditions.

They found evidence that exposure to a wide range of common microbes in
early life helped to promote healthy development of the immune system.
Rook believes that improved cleanliness may be a contributory factor in
diseases such as asthma, eczema and hay fever, along with autoimmune
diseases such as Type 1 diabetes and inflammatory bowel disorders such as
Crohn?s disease.

The body's response to such inflammatory diseases is regulated by immune
cells which, said Rook, need to encounter harmless bacteria early in life
in order to work out how to respond effectively to real threats.

Without these encounters, he said, the regulatory cells can malfunction,
leading to health problems. ~Quoted from an article posted by Paul

Reminds me of a visit to Tim Shell some years ago, a young Mennonite farmer who was working on development of an experimental hybrid for pastured broiler production. After lunch, we walked out over his place to look at his operation, which included a big pen with nipple waterers the chickens drank from. I suddenly noticed--it gave me quite a jolt--that his two little girls, who had tagged along, were drinking eagerly from the nipple waterers. In the middle of a heavily populated chicken yard!

But then I noticed that Daddy was seeing the girls thus engaged, and he didn't seem the least concerned. And the realization came to me, "Well, duh, obviously these children have immune systems able to kick butt to anything coming down the pike!"

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us

"How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used."
~Wendell Berry





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