There aren’t many things as American as hot dogs, baseball
and apple pie, but you soon might want to add allergies and asthma to the list.
In a study that checked more than 90,000 kids around the world
between 0 and 17 years of age, JAMA Pediatrics learned that American kids have
higher incidences of auto-immune diseases and conditions including asthma,
eczema, hay fever and allergies to foods.
The rate of incidence in allergy-related disease among
American children is nearly 34% while the next highest areas of the world check
in at about 20%.
The reasons for this higher allergy rate could be attributed
to many factors. But one of the most pressing and interesting ideas is that
American kids are simply kept too clean at too young of an age. The seeming
obsession with germ prevention in America may be affecting the ability of
children to develop natural immunities.
Strangely children who had lived outside America and were
brought into the United States after more than 10 years of living in another
country saw their allergy risk spike by up to three times the incidence
compared to their countries of origin.
That suggests factors other than germs alone may be at work
contributing to higher allergy and asthma incidences among children.
The Western diet has been blamed for its ironic dependence
on heavy additives and artificial flavorings rather than more organic diets
with natural spices to give flavor to foods, and green tea, a natural body
cleanser, for beverages.
Climate, higher incidence of obesity, lack of exercise and
strains of infections may be affecting children in the states as well.
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