Why the Rise in Autoimmune Diseases?
The hygiene hypothesis has been public health theory since the polio epidemics of the 1940’s; it holds that carefully protecting babies from germs actually makes them more vulnerable to pathogens they eventually encounter. Now, pediatricians at the University of Helsinki suspect autoimmune diseases may be a hygiene hypothesis reaction of the human microbiome. These physicians compared Finnish and Karilian Russian babies and found that the Russian children had a greater diversity of gut microflora because of less sanitary living conditions. The study, which lasted several years, also found that about a year before Type 1 diabetes presented, microbe diversity in the Finnish children declined and inflammatory microbes bloomed. This suggests that there may be a microbiotic approach to preventing certain autoimmune diseases and a new, predictable means for early diagnosis of them. MORE
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