Remember how our immune system needs the challenge
of microbial exposure to learn how to respond to both perceived and real threats?
We're interested in constructing new architectural interfaces and environments that give our children the
right microbial exposures.
Living in a household that hand - washes means family members are eating off of plates and cutlery that have more bacteria, and therefore
more microbial exposure.
«Since it's quite difficult to track
microbial exposure on a daily basis, especially with humans — who move around a lot — we're exploring new animal models to see if we can ask the same questions we would about humans and get answers in more rigorous, controlled ways,» Gilbert said.
Consistent with the «hygiene hypothesis,» which holds that increased
microbial exposure in the first years of life is protective for asthma, the team's findings also indicate that the presence of house dust components that stimulate the innate immune system decreases asthma risk.
The intestinal microbiota represents the greatest
human microbial exposure, and the acquisition of early intestinal microbiota is the neonate's first major microbial challenge.
It is thought that the
initial microbial exposure is important in defining the successional trajectories leading to more complex and stable adult ecosystems (10, 22), and additionally, initial communities may serve as a direct source of protective or pathogenic bacteria very early in life.
The findings pave the way for exploring the possible consequences of altering our human - made environments in ways that diverge from the
natural microbial exposure that has characterized most of human existence.
We speculate that these lifestyle factors reduce allergy development via increased or more
diverse microbial exposure, stimulating the immune system to develop in a more tolerant direction.
«The remarkable changes in home microbial content across differing levels of urbanization raise the possibility that the
reduced microbial exposure to environmental bacteria seen in modern homes contributes to immune and metabolic disorders, from asthma to obesity, which have become the new disease paradigm in the industrialized world,» adds Dominguez - Bello, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Langone.
It turns out that the
more microbial exposure we have at a young age — and the more diverse our microbiome — the healthier we are long - term, because all those microbes we encounter in our early years train and challenge our immune system to respond appropriately, whether that means taking action against toxins and harmful microbes or laying low when confronted with harmless allergens.
It's possibly due to the rise in processed food, along with widespread antibiotic drug use and sanitation, all of which curtailed
our microbial exposure.
However, additional research is needed to clarify the potential roles of
these microbial exposures in asthma development.
Their microbial exposures varied and gene expression patterns varied, but the parts of the genome that were open at each location in the gut remained consistent, Crawford said.
We could do something similar in our buildings to give children
the microbial exposure to develop a healthy immune system.
Increasing your nutrient quality, reducing chemical and
microbial exposure, and avoiding obesogens and psychological stress can make all the difference in keeping your predisposition to obesity from becoming a reality.
Also,
the microbial exposure as a kid can shape who you are as an adult, but you can also do things as an adult.
«Understanding the consequences of architectural changes on
microbial exposures will be important to improving future home design and ultimately to human health.»