Akanska, that is a very strong theory and why I choose to not keep my house spic and span and germ free for my kids. Or maybe it’s b/c I hate cleaning… No really, I am in that camp agreeing with that theory. My husband lived on a farm and barely gets sick, ever.
i’m sure there aren’t many studies backing that theory as of yet and that there are many outliers but my mother lived on a ‘farm’ (corn so not an animal farm) but a farm nonetheless and she has chron’s and IBS just kinda goes with chron’s. i would like to see more research in the area as i’m sure i’m a carrier of the disease (usually skips generations)
amberpower Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Akanska, that is a very strong theory and why I > choose to not keep my house spic and span and germ > free for my kids. > > Or maybe it’s b/c I hate cleaning… > > No really, I am in that camp agreeing with that > theory. My husband lived on a farm and barely gets > sick, ever. I’ve extended the “10 second” rule to 20- and I never get stomach issues 
MattLikesAnalysis Have you seen the papers on the clinical trails using parasitic (but harmless) worms as a treatment? My friend suffers a lot and has to take incredibly harsh steroids, etc that creat their own issues… seems like its promising research anyway.
no never heard of it. thanks for the heads up, i’ll have to look into it.
MattLikesAnalysis Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > no never heard of it. thanks for the heads up, > i’ll have to look into it. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4091881.stm http://www.webmd.com/ibd-crohns-disease/news/20030924/parasitic-worms-ease-ibd still very experimental of course, but there is a clinic in Mexico that is currently offering treatment.
This reminds me of a great protest that took place in Moscow this year. The new president’s name means “Bear” in Russian and he has been making proposals to reverse the population decline. To protest, some university students broke into a museum and had an orgy in front of a giant stuffed bear and took pictures…
I suspect that extra cleanliness means that more people are living with autoimmune diseases. Less cleanliness would mean that more people are dying of them (possibly without being diagnosed). There may also be an evolutionary effect, particularly if people dying of autoimmune diseases do so before they reproduce.
bchadwick Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Infant mortality differs around the globe; you’ll > need a risk adjusted child credit. HAHAHA!! I don’t think this malthusian worry about over population is justified, as evidenced in the pass as countries industrialize birthrates tend to fall. India and China have had major problems with over population in the past but now it appears that they will soon be facing the same challenges with an ageing workforce that western europe is.
IronMan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Even if the birth rate declines, the world’s > population will still increase. I think we’re > going to have a pop of 9 billion soon. What > happens when we hit 15bill? Un estimates that we top out at 9bill sometime in the middle of this century. as frisian mentioned, the biggest worry is when those 9billion people start living like north amaericans
> India and China have had major problems with over > population in the past but now it appears that > they will soon be facing the same challenges with > an ageing workforce that western europe is. Unfortunately, India won’t for a long time. India probably has the youngest population in the world (except for a few countries) and it’s likely to stay that way for a long time. Only the in the second half of this century India may begin to slow down. Ofcourse, even in India the states which have had higher education levels and economic growth have lower population growth. Incidentally, Some states in India have reached the 2.1 level, expected to achieve a balance in population. Uneven population growth, has created problems such as membership to the Lok Sabha (Lower house of the parliament), which is based on population getting skewed in favor of states with a higher population growth.