Posted on October 1st, 2008 by Craig Maltby, Editor
NBC looks at immune balance down on the farm
Robert Bazell’s report on global allergy conditions, and how a Denver researcher is assembling allergen and bacteria data from rural areas around the world, hits the immune balance story right on the bulls’ eye. The story talks about the need for out-of-balance immune systems to “learn” how to react to pathogens.
Watch the report here.
October 3rd, 2008 at 2:01 pm
I have made it a practice for many years not to overreact when I become ill and quickly go to the doctor and get meds. With that practice, I have come to become much more healthy. I do not get sick that often if at all. Perhaps the flu once every 3-5 years and may be a cold every other year.
I have used this same practice with my children and I can honestly say that as they have gotten older, their immune system has definitely gotten stronger. While it was very difficult watching them suffer through the symptoms of colds and flus while they were young, we are definitely reaping the rewards now. They do not get sick as often and when they do, their systems seem to quickly respond and duration of the sickness is much less.
My daughter does have allergies and many times it affects her sleeping patterns. My wife and I continue to debate on when is the right time to potentially begin the antigen process. I, of course, want to wait a little longer and determine if it is truly necessay. I would like to ensure that we give here system enough time to adapt. My wife, on the other hand, has terrible allergies and had significant sinus infections when young. Approximately, 8 years ago, she did start antigens. They have been a life change for her. I am pleased that we have agreed thus far on how to deal with my daughter’s condition. I know we will be leaning heavily on my wife’s allergy experience to try and determine if we have given my daughter’s system enough time to respond and ensure that we take action when in fact it seems her system is not responding and it is detrimental to her.
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Craig,
This is dead on and is exactly what Dr. Reeves has been telling us for years about the hygiene hypothesis. Essentially the way I understand it is because we have done such a good job cleaning up our environment our bodies have not learned how to deal with different invaders some of which are harmless but our body has not learned that and over reacts….causing an allergic response.
Paul
October 3rd, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Craig,
Found you through M.Martine, but I will be back. I have huge allergies and asthma so I WILL be back. Nice site.
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Brett:
You are a naturopath’s favorite kind of client, I’m sure. You are taking the long view on health maintenance and development. Impressive. I hope you’ll take a look at the other material we have assembled under the “allergies” category (look on the list on the left side of the blog front page). A lot of good stuff to add to the NBC News video.
Thanks so much for your detailed account. It adds greatly to this up-start community.
Craig
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Janice: Thanks for giving us a look. Hope you’ll have some time to go deeper into the allergy section of the blog. A lot there.
Cheers, Craig.
October 3rd, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Paul: Yes, yes and yes. Plus, the same case may be made for bacterial infections that lead to so many childhood–and adult–sick days during the winter crud season. The body’s immune system was not exposed to these strains early on, and when they do emerge in the body, the Immune Central Command either goes to Defcon 4 and overreacts, or totally misses the intruder and doesn’t jump on it early and forcefully. I think Dr. Reeves could probably help straighten out my obvious over-simplification.
October 6th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
This makes perfect sense….send the kids to a farm when they are young.
October 7th, 2008 at 8:51 am
Stuart: with the healthy price of corn and beans, there may be more kids growing up on the farm in the future. At least more farm kids than bond trader kids or credit default swap seller kids. We can thank the global credit meltdown for improving immune health around the world.
July 18th, 2011 at 8:50 am
Hey I’ve been getting into naturopathic. And I got to your site. Your writing is is very interesting. Thanks for your advice. I’ll bookmark this.