SECRETS OF A HAPPY LIFE

Ignore the dirt

While the thought of germs on kitchen surfaces may keep the hygiene-conscious obsessively cleaning, the truth is that our modern ultra-clean lifestyles may be harmful.

Cases of asthma, hayfever and other allergies have risen in urban areas over the past 50 years while rural regions remain largely unaffected.

Many put this trend down to the “hygiene hypothesis” – we’re now so germ-free that our immune systems don’t get the chance to become trained to deal with the bugs. So every time a relatively harmless irritant makes its way into the body, the immune system overreacts with hayfever, asthma, rashes and worse in an effort to rid the body of the alien invader. This explanation is now known as the “hygiene hypothesis of allergy”.