In an intriguing study, British researchers concluded that "overly sanitized homes destroy our immune systems." The lead author of the study, Graham Rook, a microbiology expert at University College London, stated that "for over 20 years, there has been a public narrative that daily house cleaning is essential to stop exposure to pathogens, but it actually also prevents us from having beneficial organisms." The site "Science Alert" also quoted him saying, "In this paper, we revealed the clear conflict between the need to clean to keep us free from pathogens and the need for certain microbes to populate our intestines and build our immune and metabolic systems."
The researchers emphasized in the paper published in the "Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology" that microbes are incredibly important for us, as our bodies need beneficial bacteria, including those in the intestines, skin, and lungs. The hygiene hypothesis specifically relates to early exposure to certain microbes during early childhood, which evolved with humans to help develop a strong immune system, particularly concerning allergies and other immune disorders. In the new paper, which is a review of previous literature, the researchers converge on the idea that "a very clean house is harmful to immunity."
It is noted that infants develop a microbiome from birth, initially seeded by their mothers and then mostly influenced by family members and their environment. Microbes from individuals fall and mix, creating a microbiome shared among those who live together (including pets). Rook stated that exposure to our mothers, family members, the natural environment, and vaccines can provide all the microbial inputs we need. However, he added that targeted cleaning "does not conflict with the idea that the study wants to develop."
