We got it right all along, before this report...

Dirt can be good for children, say scientists

Children should be allowed to get dirty, according to scientists who have found being too clean can impair the skin's ability to heal.

Normal bacteria living on the skin trigger a pathway that helps prevent inflammation when we get hurt, the US team discovered.

The bugs dampen down overactive immune responses that can cause cuts and grazes to swell, they say.

Their work is published in the online edition of Nature Medicine.

Experts said the findings provided an explanation for the "hygiene hypothesis", which holds that exposure to germs during early childhood primes the body against allergies.

Many believe our obsession with cleanliness is to blame for the recent boom in allergies in developed countries.

'Good' bacteria

Researchers from the School of Medicine at University of California, San Diego, found a common bacterial species, known asStaphylococci, blocked a vital step in a cascade of events that led to inflammation.

By studying mice and human cells, they found the harmless bacteria did this by making a molecule called lipoteichoic acid or LTA, which acted on keratinocytes - the main cell types found in the outer layer of the skin.

The LTA keeps the keratinocytes in check, stopping them from mounting an aggressive inflammatory response.

Head of the research Professor Richard Gallo said: "The exciting implication of the work is that it provides a molecular basis to understand the hygiene hypothesis and has uncovered elements of the wound repair response that were previously unknown.

"This may help us devise new therapeutic approaches for inflammatory skin diseases."

The lobby group Parents Outloud said the work offered scientific support for its campaign to stop children being mollycoddled and over-sanitised.

A spokeswoman for Allergy UK said there was a growing body of evidence that exposure to germs was a good thing.

But she said more research was needed.

"Rates of allergy have tripled in the UK in the last decade. One in three people now has some kind of allergy.

"Some of this might be that people are better informed. But a lot of it is genetic as well as down to our environment," she said.

From our personal experience, we used to laugh at parents who are exceptionally careful with their children in terms of hygiene. Our reasons are simple, we have been through years as children when parents were poor and children neglected most times... and we survived!

Compared with others who are exceptionally careful with their foods, eg. eating in hawker centres where cleanliness is questionable, we have no problems most times which is further proof of our ability to take on many kinds of bacteria.

Personally, I am allergic to many things and this was confirmed when I had sinus problem and before that, there was a routine check on allergies - all positive! Then, our son had eczema as a baby and allergic to cow's milk and eggs. Fortunately, under NHS, he was provided with Prosobee (made from soya beans) until he had gone off that allergy. But the egg allergy lasted for a number of years. He would get eyes swollen after eating an egg or when he had contact with a dog or cat.

Then, back in Malaysia, my elder daughter even had asthma. But I would think it was allergy to the more than 20 cages of birds belonging to my father-in-law. The room was next to an air-well where the birds were kept.

Of course, we are living in different conditions these days, with the many new chemicals introduced in products and used in feeding livestocks, and the viruses being discovered. Honestly, most times we are treading dangerously!
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