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Finland's National Allergy Program Successfully Reduces Allergic Diseases

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Re: Finland's National Allergy Program Successfully Reduces Allergic Diseases

#31

Post by jajko »

Sharlin wrote: post #22

Kids should be allowed to eat dirt. They should be exposed to rich, biodiverse environments, not just asphalt, rubber safety mats or impoverished monocultural lawns (although the latter are better than nothing, at least unless they're chock full of pesticides and herbicides…) Adults should, too, for that matter.

We did that. Not letting them eat big chunks of dirt or mud, but not being too strict with clean hands, picking up food from floor etc. And yes few times for some reason they chugged in some small piece of outright dirt.

Its much easier when the amount of nasty diseases they can get from dirty hands is minimal on western world, compared to many parts of 3rd world countries with next to 0 sanitation and usually no sewage separation.

No allergies so far but its too early to tell.

Re: Finland's National Allergy Program Successfully Reduces Allergic Diseases

#32

Post by croissants »

Sharlin wrote: post #22

Kids should be allowed to eat dirt. They should be exposed to rich, biodiverse environments, not just asphalt, rubber safety mats or impoverished monocultural lawns (although the latter are better than nothing, at least unless they're chock full of pesticides and herbicides…) Adults should, too, for that matter.

At least in moderately urban parks in the USA, one complicating factor is that a lot of the dirt has dog poop scattered on top.

Re: Finland's National Allergy Program Successfully Reduces Allergic Diseases

#33

Post by matsemann »

justaj wrote: post #2

For me this link results in a 503 I've read the gist of this article in my local news org feed. What it basically comes down to is that Finnish scientists noticed that Russian children who grew up in rural areas usually had way less asthma cases than Finnish city children, and thus began to research why this was the case. They hypothesized that early (first 10000 days) exposure to micro-organisms might play a key rol…

I always joke the reason I'm never sick is that I don't wash my hands after using the toilet. I do of course wash my hands, it's mostly to get a reaction out of my GF, but I guess there is a balance between cleanliness and exposure. It's how vaccines work, right.

But being exposed to the wrongs things can also be bad. The small mountain village I grew up in is partly famous for it's children hospital ("Geilomo barnesykehus"), where kids from the 1930s and onwards would come to live, since they would be better here than in the city. Like kids with asthma and lung diseases could live a much more normal life here.

Re: Finland's National Allergy Program Successfully Reduces Allergic Diseases

#34

Post by adammarples »

thrance wrote: post #23

Welp. I had a carpet floor in my bedroom as a kid, but that didn't prevent me from developing the badest allergy to dust mites as a teen. It recently got so bad that I started a hyposensitization treatment. Hopefully in 3-5 years it'll get better.

And did you play outside in rural areas or were you raised in a city?

Re: Finland's National Allergy Program Successfully Reduces Allergic Diseases

#35

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

apwell23 wrote: post #16
bell-cot wrote: post #10

[flagged]

usa has a whole agency for it National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). edit: to ppl claiming this must be useless because its in usa is incredible ignorant and insulting to ppl who work there. pls do minimum of research before making such statements. they even have link to their ongoing clinical trials on their website homepage https://www.niaid.nih.gov/clinical-trials/find-a-clinical-tr...

I don't think that it's about the good people who work at NIAID, rather about the larger system in which this agency is contained, that may not be "listening to the experts", delivering good outcomes at good costs to all people. And that the value of such agencies may not be recognised. How secure is their funding today?

Re: Finland's National Allergy Program Successfully Reduces Allergic Diseases

#36

Post by latexr »

bell-cot wrote: post #10

[flagged]

> a bunch of competent, sensible leaders, who actually wanted to improve the long-term health and welfare of their citizens and nation.

That’s preposterous! Doesn’t the country understand its fiduciary duty to shareholders? How do they expect to be competitive and leverage innovative profitable solutions in this hyper-competitive, high-stakes global AI NFT B2B ABC XYZ ASDF Rama Lama Ding Dong marketplace? With policies like that, they’re doomed. Yes, their citizens will live better happier lives, but at what cost?!

Re: Finland's National Allergy Program Successfully Reduces Allergic Diseases

#37

Post by daneel_w »

dachworker wrote: post #21
procaryote wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sweden, norway, denmark. All slightly further away from russia!

Isn't this a bit of fetishization of the white man? Pretty sure all European countries have competent health agencies and AFAIK, the nordic countries do not score particularly well in health care metrics.

If he had said South Korea, Japan and Thailand, would you then have accused him of fetishization of the asian man? What is your point with such a stupid and unnecessary remark?

Health care in Sweden isn't what I seem to recall it to be in the early 2000s. But to imply that it does not "score well" is completely false.

Re: Finland's National Allergy Program Successfully Reduces Allergic Diseases

#38

Post by throwawayabcdef »

There is more to it than this. My children have had severe food allergies since birth: we know this b/c they had reactions to breast milk based on what mom would eat.

The also have had eczema since birth and one developed life threatening asthma at one year old. His trigger is the normal cold virus which he is constantly exposed to.

With that said, however, my kids are filthy all the time and play outside constantly in the dirt. One of the seven allergies has resolved completely and one appears to be resolved (haven't done a full challenge yet). No luck with the other five foods yet though.

We don't know about the asthma. Seems better but its managed with meds. Its also way scarier than anaphylaxis (and will be triggered by anaphylaxis and gets worse over the course of a week until he is in the hospital unless we aggressively treat it the moment he has breathing symptoms). The eczema comes and goes. Sometimes it responds to various treatments but usually it doesn't.

Its complicated. But kids should be filthy most of the time.

Re: Finland's National Allergy Program Successfully Reduces Allergic Diseases

#39

Post by SamBam »

apwell23 wrote: post #18

my wife couldn't breastfeed because there was no milk production. That's the top recommendation? Now what will happen to my son?

The point isn't to make people feel guilty. Just do the rest and it will probably be fine.

Honestly, I worry that in the US there was a reaction against the "breast is best" movement because of the worry that people were being made to feel guilty if they couldn't produce milk. I understand the sentiment, but there should be a way to communicate facts while still recognizing that not everyone can do it.

Re: Finland's National Allergy Program Successfully Reduces Allergic Diseases

#40

Post by OutOfHere »

echelon wrote: post #6

The hygiene hypothesis [1] is real. Let kids play in the dirt, otherwise they'll develop severe allergies to innocuous substances. Early development is when the immune system trains on what is actually harmful. If you don't stimulate it, you wind up with pollen and peanut allergies instead of parasite and bacteria immune responses. From the paper: Primary prevention Support breastfeeding, with solid foods from 4–6 mo…

Those are good, but I don't see playing in dirt in the list.
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