5 ms·
> Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should. I'm curious what (if anything) the unintended c
by sjaak 5y ago
> Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
I'm curious what (if anything) the unintended consequences of this would be.
- colechristensen 5y agoYou evolved to get sick. Autoimmune diseases (your immune system gets bored and starts attacking you) can be caused by living in a too sterile environment.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- odyssey7 5y agoIs this no longer an unproven hypothesis? My impression was there’s just a lot of correlation evidence.
- tux3 5y agoHaving just recently watched the OME videos on Immunology, at least they still think this is an unproven hypothesis. What the consensus seems to be is that autoimmune diseases are a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Wikipedia claims there is "significant evidence" for the Hygiene hypothesis, but says disagreement still exists, no definitive proof.
- martin_a 5y agoMy brother has served for around 9 years on a warship. Modern warships are using pressurized cabins to keep chemical weapons and alike out. He has developed allergies against cat hairs, dust and other stuff in these times. Prolonged times out on the sea with high levels of cleanliness (is that a word? non-native speaker here) might have played their fair share in this. edit: Maybe another point or just a corelation for this thesis.
- ch4s3 5y agoAdult onset allergies typically appear in peoples' 20s. No one knows why but nasal allergies effect ~6% of US adults, many developing them as adults, almost none of whom live on US war ships.
- thrashh 5y agoAnecdotal evidence is a scam
- martin_a 5y agoNah, it's anecdotal at best. ;-)
- newsbinator 5y agoMy sibling hasn't served on a warship and still developed several allergies after age 35.
- yosito 5y agoA vaccinated immune system is neither "bored" nor "sterile". People get vaccines before traveling to exceptionally insterile places, to give their immune systems more training so they are prepared to fight pathogens when they are exposed to them. Nothing boring about it.
- colechristensen 5y agoNot if your goal is to extinct the flu virus.
- yosito 5y agoAre you implying that catching a flu virus every couple of years is "good for you" beyond confering immunity to other flu viruses?
- colechristensen 5y agoMore or less. You are built up of many feedback systems trying to achieve some stable or metastable state. Without knowing the exact mechanism, the hypothesis goes something like this: your immune system has an internal variable "activity", and given long periods of nothing to do, it will ramp up its sensitivity until it finds something to do -- and you develop an autoimmune disease ranging from environmental allergies (reacting to things which aren't threats) to one of many where the immune system attacks your own tissues. The actual mechanism likely more complex than a single variable thermostat, but that's the general idea. So yes, challenging your immune system from time to time by giving it a disease or two to fight off might indeed be "good for you".
- sjg007 5y agoWe harbor more bacterial cells in our body than human cells..
- RealityVoid 5y agoI am really going to ask you to cite your sources on the fact that autoimmune diseases are caused by sterile environment. I remember reading that people of european descent have increased odds of certain autoimmune afflictions because of the black plague [1] and also on the wikipedia page it mentions that autoimmune diseases are triggered by infection [2], not LACK of it. [1] I failed to find a source for this though, so if someone can point me out if I'm right or wrong, please do so. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoimmune_disease#Causes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoimmune_disease#Causes