
Babies Know - A Little Dirt Is Good for You - echair
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/health/27brod.html?em
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robotrout
I've been aware of this idea for many years, specifically with regards to
asthma. My son is 10 months old, and for his whole life, we've been pretty
careful to keep him as clean as possible. It's easy to believe something in
theory, but harder to make yourself do it in practice.

Growing up on a cattle ranch, I remember all my neighbor ranch kids were all
as healthy as I was. Any sickly kids, that I was aware of, tended to be town
kids. But, there were a lot more town kids than ranch kids, so statistically,
that would have happened anyway.

It's going to be hard to even find good clean dirt and cow pies and dead deer
to poke with sticks, and frogs to catch, and all the wonderful things I had to
get dirty with, for my son, now that we are city slickers. We'll hike and
fish, but those events don't happen every day.

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ph0rque
If I understand the article correctly, it's city dirt that you'd want to
expose your son to, since that's where you live.

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robotrout
I think that's not so. For one thing, a lot of "city dirt" is contaminated
with chemicals. The dirt that's supposed to be good for you, is good for you
because of it's organic contaminants, not chemical ones.

Furthermore, the specific organic contaminates that make the most difference,
apparently, are parasitic worm larvae, which are not so likely to be found in
the city, as they come from animal feces. Of course, there are dogs and cats
in the city, but I'm more comfortable with cow crap than dog crap, myself, as
far as ingesting it. Plus, people worm their pets.

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dmm
All matter is in the form of chemicals, including everything possibly called
organic.

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gcheong
Nice counterbalance to all the "kills 99.99% of germs" commercials we see
these days. I wonder if being a bit more lacksidasical about the amount of
dirt kids are exposed to would also result in less cases of cleanliness OCD.

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Tichy
I wouldn't jump to that conclusion too soon. For example, couldn't changes in
diet also be responsible for the rise of autoimmune diseases? At least in "The
China Study" some indications seem to be given.

In any case, western diet changed dramatically over the last few hundred
years, so it seems at least as likely a candidate as hygiene.

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TooMuchNick
"A little dirt is good for you" strikes me as a bittersweet lesson for those
of us who avoid the conflict and drudgery that's necessary to reach any
worthwhile dream.

Plus now I'm hungry for some beef.

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bena
Didn't George Carlin have a bit along the same lines

