Excessive Cleanliness Increases Allergies

Thursday 15th April 2010

Allergy experts are warning that excessively cleaning your home can partly cause allergies including asthma, hay fever, eczema and more. Dr Guy Delespesse, director of the Laboratory for Allergy Research at the University of Montreal, explains that over cleaning the home can create a sterile environment that increases allergy risk. Dr Delespesse claims “ The more sterile the environment a child lives in, the higher the risk he or she will develop allergies or an immune problem in their lifetime”.

Research, led by Dr Delespesse, shows that the number of allergy sufferers in the West has risen dramatically over the last three decades. The study shows that in 1980 only 10% of the Western population suffered from allergies, compared to over 30% today. Researchers noted that asthma has increased significantly, so much so that one in every ten children is now thought to be asthmatic. Worryingly, the research also shows that mortality rates have increased over this period.

Researchers attribute this rise in allergy risk to the over cleaning and sterilising of our homes and everyday environments that, in turn, reduces our interaction with micro-organisms and bacteria that strengthen the body’s immune response. The researchers believe that under exposure to bacteria and micro-organisms has resulted in the lowering of our digestive diversity that lowers the immune response and is thought to increase susceptibility to allergies. The researchers recommend that consuming pro-biotic foodstuffs, including yoghurts, could help restore allergy fighting digestive diversity, particularly in children.

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