A Matter of Balance

_Elsa_

‘As civilization evolved, we moved from the Cave Man to living in dirt floor huts with many family members in one space and farm animals living in close contact to the home, and then to overcrowded cities with poor sanitation practices. Many lives were lost to bacteria, viral, and parasitic type infections that spread like wildfire through the population. However, through natural selection and advancements in sanitation and health care, civilization survived. All the while our immune systems were watching and adapting.

As civilizations became more modern, sanitary practices improved and medicine advanced in leaps and bounds with vaccines, sterile hygiene practices, and antibiotics. Societies changed and families became smaller, living environments became cleaner and more sterile sanitary practice became more sophisticated. We also developed clean drinking water.

Children's environments also became very different as families that lived on farms very close to their animals and were exposed to all of the environmental allergens and irritants that one associates with a farming or agricultural society. Growing up in that type of environment created a very different set of exposures then one would see now growing up in a high-rise apartment in a big city or in a single-family home in suburbia.

So if we are cleaner and if we live smarter and if the advances of medicine have given us amazing vaccines to prevent disease what could possibly be bad about that?

Despite the belief that no infection is better than having an infection, there are some studies that show that populations that are prone to particular types of infections like helminth/worms intestinal infections due to contaminated water are less likely to develop allergic asthma. Researchers are also investigating endotoxin, a component of Gram-negative bacteria to see how exposure to this substance could tip the scales of the immune response. Studies from Europe have shown that children who go to daycare very early in life and are exposed to more children's more viruses/bacteria and potentially more infections tend to have fewer asthma and allergies as they grow up.’ (Source)

Red Rabbit has had enough googling for one day. He needs to relax his brain so he grabs a carrot and sits down to relax. He begins to imagine what it might be like to jump into a mud puddle. He remembers how much fun he had at the pool party. Both he and Yeti had so much fun doing cannonballs into the pool.  

“I definitely would have to get my buddy Yeti to jump with me,” Red Rabbit thinks.

A picture of how much fun they could have enters his mind. 

“Definitely Yeti has to do it with me,” Red Rabbit thinks. “I have to call Yeti to ask him if he’d be interested but first I think we need to wait until we get a heavy rain that can cause mud puddles. I can’t wait for Yeti and me to do it! Mud and dirt can be fun as long as there is a balance between dirt and cleanliness!”

The End!

Start at the beginning – Let’s play in the mud!