Talk:Hygiene hypothesis

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[edit] Overview

The last sentence in the overview-

"Despite this, the infectious microorganisms or infectious microorganism-components believed to be responsible for these effects have yet to be identified and incorporated into medical practice and the contribution of hygiene levels to the rise of allergic disease has yet to be established"

makes it seem like it is still thought that the only thing that good 'hygiene' does is get rid of these infectious microorganisms that are necessary to stimulate proper development of our immune system. This was the original hypothesis, but now the hygiene hypothesis has expanded to include beneficial bacteria (particularly in the gut), dirt, and parasites, among other things. I suggest some reformatting. Either a) make the overview more of a history, and include some of the stuff about the evolution of the hygiene hypothesis from the current mechanism of action section or b) at least delete this sentence since it is misleading. Aklauncher (talk) 17:06, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Along those lines is this recent article.

Weinstock, 59, specializes in studying why immunological diseases - everything from hay fever and asthma to diabetes and multiple sclerosis - are on the rise in developed countries but remain relatively uncommon in undeveloped countries. He believes these diseases, many of which were almost unheard of 100 years ago, are because of changes in our environment, a lack of exposure to something. And he thinks that something may be the worms. The parasites that we have been told to avoid - such as hookworm and pinworm - may be the good guys, while excessive hygiene may be the bad guy.

Weinstock is notable enough that much of this article could be included in this page. Wayne (talk) 02:21, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I re-organized the page as I proposed above. The parasite addition to the hygiene hypothesis is already discussed, but I added the above article as an external link. Aklauncher (talk) 02:12, 9 January 2008 (UTC)