

The joy of dirt - yan
http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15108662

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herdrick
Contrarian overviews like this are what the Economist does best.

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ars
Perhaps not washing helped strengthen european immune systems so that the
germs of <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel> did their work.

If only (mainly?) europeans did not wash, I wonder how that affected their
disease resistance compared to other civilizations.

Don't really know, just wondering.

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wglb
A similar article in <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=984896>.

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ShabbyDoo
>and unpasteurised milk

My grandparents had a dairy operation, and I don't think I had pasteurized
milk at home until age six (when the farm was sold). I don't have any
autoimmune issues, so I'm at least a datapoint showing correlation.

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giardini
And don't forget the "dirt vaccine":
[http://www.thepigsite.com/swinenews/7892/dirt-vaccine-
resear...](http://www.thepigsite.com/swinenews/7892/dirt-vaccine-research)

