Dave_ph said:
One of the important medical issues that I've learned by watching House M.D. is that you don't want to be overprotective when it comes to germs.
Actually, I can testify there
is some truth to that! That is the hypothesis behind the development of allergies in young children and there is increasing evidence. Being clean is certainly encouraged but again, there can be too much of a good thing. Children's immune systems make crucial changes at an early age and some exposure is required to reduce the risk of developing certain allergies. On a similar note, the US is so sterile compared to some countries. My bf took me to India and he being from India grew up with those microbial flora so he could tolerate the water. I on the other hand am not supposed to drink the water or even brush my teeth with it! His mom offered me fruit once that was rinsed in tap water, not wanting to be rude, I ate it and wow, worst diarrhea ever!! It cramped like crazy and I was trying to stay at the dinner table and continue polite conversation... 8O
Heidi n Q said:
:lol: That was my thought, too! However, I recently heard about (I think) "Hookworm Therapy" for people with diagnoses like mine.
There is some related truth to this too! Leech therapy has been investigated in managing certain ailments and actually seems to have some promising results. But back on using bugs to our benefit, there is also the concept of using probiotics to manage irritable bowel syndrome. The most interesting one is transplanting feces from someone into another person's bowels to manage severe cases of C. diff. colitis. It actually has
extremely good results! It actually started a bit of a trend on the internet, there are actually recipes you can find on how to ingest stool in larger amounts more regularly....
Anyways, for House M.D. many of the authors are doctors, one of the shows that has a shocking amount of medically correct claims

. Bf can't stand the show though, he says there is too much jargon and goes, "wth is a CBC? lipase? hepatocellular carcinoma? huh?".
But back to topic, yea, there is a good amount of hype over toxoplasmosis (something that can be easily avoided) but really, cats are very clean creatures compared to many other pets. I love dogs too, but they kinda smell. :?