Our wussy immune systems – maybe skip the hand sanitizer

In the movie "The War of the Worlds" – the good one, I mean, the original – aliens, as is apparently their constant desire, attacked planet Earth on a global scale.

So, what's so special about Earth? I guess it's just better than all the other inhabited planets, because, you know, we keep getting attacked.

Anyway, these aliens, with their superior technology, were making quick work of our destruction.

Then all of a sudden, when on the verge of our annihilation, the alien ships inexplicably just began falling from the sky.

In the end, it wasn't our firepower, nuclear weapons or tactics that did them in. It was a simple Earth-born virus.

This may seem farfetched, but it's not. Our own world history is rife with accounts of simple viruses virtually wiping out entire civilizations.

Western explorers, settlers and, yes, conquerors brought with them to new worlds viruses and bacteria that were utterly foreign to other peoples and which their immune systems were incapable of handling.

Now fast-forward to today, and this is the same type of society we have been constructing for a century or more.

Allow me to explain by humanizing our immune system, for want of a better term.

Who is more likely to be successful?

The individual who never goes out? The one who just stays home, sheltered from the world? The one who doesn't participate in life, who never challenges him or herself?

Or is it more likely the one who gets out in the world, who pushes him or herself and demands more of his or her mind and body?

Who will become stronger and who will succumb to failure?

There are a number of "old sayings" along this line: Use it lose it; practice makes perfect; and, of course, only the strong survive.

Although it most often refers to something sports or physical-activity related, this is sage advice for practically everything in life. Brain games strengthen the mind as much as exercise strengthens the body.

If you don't challenge yourself – push your body and mind – you will never improve, never grow stronger.

And the same can be said of the body's immune system. Over centuries, human immune systems have adapted to overcome many threats. However, we appear to have reversed this trend.

The New York Times wrote, in March of 2019: "Your Environment Is Cleaner. Your Immune System Has Never Been So Unprepared. A century ago, British scientists suggested a link between increased hygiene and allergic conditions – the first hint that our immune systems are becoming improperly 'trained.'"

The author quotes Dr. Meg Lemon, who practices medicine in Denver, Colorado, treating people with allergies and autoimmune disorders. She says throw out the antibacterial soap, stop using hand sanitizer, allow your children to pick their noses, possibly even eat dirt and, "if you drop food on the floor, pick it up and eat it."

It may sound gross, but she's referring to "the fact our immune system can become disrupted if it doesn't have regular interactions with the natural world."

She also stresses that we are taking far too many antibiotics.

What she is describing is the Hygiene Hypothesis.

Basically, it is a warning to modern-day society that we've been going about this whole cleanliness thing all wrong – that the more we sanitize our environments, the weaker and more ill-prepared our own immune systems become.

And our progress (or decline) has been tracked.

"In the early to mid 1900s, soap manufacturing in the United States increased by 44 percent," coinciding with "major improvements in water supply, refuse disposal and sewage systems."

This isn't a bad thing, but it was just the start.

Then, "in the 1960s and 1970s … antibiotics and vaccines were understood to be the answer to infectious agents, with less emphasis on 'personal responsibility.'"

"Starting in the late 1980s, the market for such hygiene products – home and personal – surged 81 percent."

And now we are awash in antibacterial soaps, which kill 99.9 percent of bacteria, bathing in sanitizer and being prescribed antibiotics for every run-of-the-mill ailment.

We have all but ceased to challenge our immune systems and if we continue this sanitization craze we're on, we'll end up like the aliens in "The War of the Worlds."

Don't get me wrong. Sanitation is a good thing, but too much of a good thing is never a good thing.

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