Ditch the antibiotics, hang on to the dog

We have talked before about allergies and the fact that kid’s exposure to dirt and animals may actually be protective.

There is something now referred to as the hygiene hypothesis of allergy; or germs are good for you.

The hypothesis is that the super-clean environment with minimal microbial exposure may promote the immune response to create more of a certain type of helper T-cell and disrupt the balance.

Previous studies of children raised on farms have suggested that exposure early in life to less hygienic environments resulted in a lower rates of allergy and asthma.

In a more recent study from the journal Chest, children were found to have asthma and allergy problems by age seven if in the first year of life they received repeated courses of antibiotics or if they did not have a dog in the house.

In this study, researchers analyzed health care and prescription data on a cohort of 13,000 children born in Manitoba, Canada, in 1995 and followed up at age 7.

Half the subjects lived in rural areas and the investigators found that, without regard to well-known asthma risk factors, asthma was significantly more likely to develop in children who had received antibiotics in the first year of life and in those homes with no dog.

The risk was highest in children who received more than 4 courses of antibiotics.
The thought so far is that antibiotics kill off germs, whereas dogs bring germs into the home. As lead author Anita Kozyrskyj, MD, put it, "Exposure to germs is lower in the absence of a dog. The administration of an antibiotic may further reduce this exposure and increase the likelihood of asthma development."

So man’s best friend may actually help your health.