Dirt Helps Immune System In Kids

When it comes to avoiding asthma it's better to be a farm kid. And experts say it's because of the dirt.

It turns out the more they play in dirt, the stronger their immune system become, even later in life. And the farm kids are around more dirt and germs than the city kids.

A new study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that children raised on farms didn't suffer from asthma as much. And experts believe it's because of all the germs they're exposed to, especially early in life.

We have known for some time that being exposed early on to germs, like those you get from working with cows, pigs and hay, help develop strong immune systems. It's what I like to call the “dirty kid theory.” In other words the more children get exposed to non-harmful germs, like those in everyday dirt, the more exercise their immune system gets, and the more exercise it gets the stronger it becomes.

The main point is that it's OK to let children play in a less than perfectly clean environment, and they don't always need antibiotics for every sneeze and sniffle. Letting their body fight out the small stuff can help build a much stronger immune system that will stick with them their whole life.