While we have always been told to keep our houses spick and span, a new study has revealed that this could be adversely affecting our children’s health.
According to research carried out by a team from the University of British Columbia, keeping our houses ‘too clean’ could be preventing our children from developing the bacteria needed to fend off asthma.
Babies are protected from developing asthma by acquiring four key types of gut bacteria by the age of three months, and our attention to detail during the spring clean could be inhibiting this.
As part of the study, the team looked at the faeces samples of over 300 children in a Canadian development programme. They found that lower levels of the four specific types of gut bacteria in these babies resulted in an increased risk of asthma.
While most kids will develop the four bacteria (Faecalibacterium, Lachnospira, Veillonella, Rothia) naturally from their environments, some are being deprived of this.
Offering up an explanation for this, co-lead researcher Stuart Turvey said: “This research supports the hygiene hypothesis that we’re making our environment too clean. It shows that gut bacteria play a role in asthma, but it is early in life when the baby’s immune system is being established.”
