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Comment by paulddraper | Hacker News Reader

Strengthens immune system.

If you really cared about your well-being, you would set up hand-desanitizing stations. A simple bowl at every juncture filled with dirt, vomit, fecal matter.

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That is so true, at least as far as an exaggregated picturesque example goes. Already 20 years ago, stories started to pop up about farms offering holidays for kids from cities with immunological health problems. The explanation was, and it just feels like a logical thing to happen, that overly clean environments lead to all sorts of health issues, and putting kids in contact with a bunch of dirt and around animals can improve things. Presented by mainstream media, in ya face. And then there came covid-19, and suddenly there "we" were, spraying everything with disinfectant, and overall worsening the immune system of everyone by artifical separation and even mandated house arrest. And if you remembered the past, and happened to utter something about that making the immune system even worse, you were outcast as a lunatic. And what happened? We had a big wave of infections of small children after the pandemic, with overfilled hospitals and everything, as a result of avoiding certain infections you always happen to get. Postponing these almost created yet another crisis. Ah, but meddling is always a good thing I guess, and pointing at people with different opinions, thats also very important for apes. When it comes to "how to life your live" we are such a pathetic species blinded by materialism and systematically stupified by the media. And, everyone writing such a statement is automatically sort of cast aside as crazy. Its a lovely place.

Actually, hygiene hypothesis primarily applies to parasites and benign bacteria. Exposure to a wide variety of those reduces type II hypersensitivity (allergies and asthma) and digestive disorders. Data point of 1, I massively improved my allergies with helminth therapy.

Viruses and systemic bacteria kind of just fuck you up for the most part. Long COVID, Mono (EBV), Chickenpox/shingles, HSV 1 and 2, HPV, those all just wreck your body in difficult-to-repair ways, increase your risk of things like cancer and MS (and possibly dementia). Lyme, syphilis, and other nasties that hide from the body's defenses can cause lifelong inflammation, rewire your immune system to cause allergies and autoimmune disorders.

I mean, sure, believe this if you want to, but it's simplistic thinking. You're taking the answer you find most emotionally satisfying to you and running with it. As an anecdote, I grew up on an acreage. I was exposed to cats, dogs, dust, pollen, and horses and was in close proximity to all of them throughout my childhood. What am I extremely allergic to? Cats, dogs, dust, pollen, and horses.

Allergies are an over-response of the immune system.

So, yes, exposure will absolutely strengthen your immune system response. (...which in this particular case, is the wrong thing)

Possibly if it's too much, but a study on giving young children an Israeli peanut product appeared to reduce the chances of them becoming allergic to peanuts. It's probably dose and exposure route sensitive, as well as "luck" through various environmental and genetic factors, including MHC.

Dr Karl (aussie science guy) got all the well-wishers to put their unsanitized finger into his eldest son's mouth on his birth day. Sample size 1, worked OK.

https://twitter.com/DoctorKarl/status/820944574906368000

Cromulent username

perfectly so

Yeah, but a baby has transferred IGG through the placenta, and IGA though milk, so for the first six months they are more protected from severe disease (at least for quite a few pathogens their mother has recently encountered). After that, exposing someone to pathogens, especially immune evasive ones like herpesvirus, gets a lot iffier. It's probably safer to only expose a baby/child to their mother's pathogens, as well as various food allergens to try to prevent food allergies from developing.

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