WESTERN SOCIETIES HYGIENE AND THE HYGIENE HYPOTHESIS

• Asthma and atopy have been recently linked to increasing hygiene standards found in Western Society. Numerous points have been put forth in this idea. It believes that:

• progressive westernization of lifestyles throughout the globe have led to the increase in atopy

• antibiotic use early in life increases atopy prevalence, and this is with the increasing/overuse of antibiotics in general

• microbial exposure in early childhood has a protective effect against asthma

• this has been termed the ‘hygiene hypothesis’ which argues:

“early childhood exposure to infections inhibit the tendency to develop allergic
disease”

• the nature of the microbial protective effect is unknown

Cookson W. The immunogenetics of asthma and eczema: A new focus on the epithelium. Nature Reviews Immunology 4, 978-988 (2004)