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Article--Overly clean homes may up bowel disease risk

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Posted 8/2/2008 9:24 PM (GMT 0)
"Children who grow up in a spick-and-span home may have a higher risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease, a study suggests."

Not how I got it!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25968435/
Posted 8/2/2008 9:43 PM (GMT 0)
My mother was and is an insane clean freak, I'm blaming her devil
Posted 8/2/2008 9:48 PM (GMT 0)
Haha I grew up with 2 older brothers! DEFINITELY not how I got it! :)
Posted 8/2/2008 10:46 PM (GMT 0)
Not how I got it, either. Our house wasn't filthy or anything, but I didn't have parents who were obsessed with cleaniliness either.
Posted 8/3/2008 12:26 AM (GMT 0)
A HA! I can totally blame my mom. She was always cleaning! Hmmm does that mean I should fire my cleaning lady to insure my family stays healthy...ha ha!
Posted 8/3/2008 3:39 AM (GMT 0)
If they mean that use of certain cleaning agents can harm IBD patients, I would look into that. I feel better since eliminating Fantastik from my household cleaning. It was giving me chills a few hours after using it; I felt like a flare was coming on but didn't make the connection to the cleaning 'til after my UC was in remission. / Old Hat (nearly 30 yrs with left-sided UC; currently on 3 Colazal daily for maintenance of remission)
Posted 8/3/2008 6:38 AM (GMT 0)
My mom was a clean freak (as am I) but as much as I hate to rule any possibilities out, I know this might be considered a trigger for IBD (living in too clean of a house) but I'm not really buying that theory at this point.

:)
Posted 8/3/2008 7:42 AM (GMT 0)
i spoke with my GI last week and he mentioned a new study indicating that IBD might stem from the "hygene theory" which he basically explained that our immune systems are not working as hard as they used to back in the day due to things being so hygenic these days.

he said imagine our immune systems are like a big elite military with nothing to do.
when one tiny little thing is out of place (bacteria in our colon) then the whole military (immune system) is sent in to take care of the minor little problem.
like a big over reaction and causes more problems than the original little 'incident'

i thought that was pretty interesting.

ive also heard that the whole 'antibacterial' trend is a major cause of children developing allergies and asthma and other health problems.
we need a little dirt in our childhood diets to keep ourselves strong against these things.

makes sense
Posted 8/3/2008 11:26 AM (GMT 0)
Umm no clean house here either growing up. In fact, I would have said that my parents loathed cleaning all together! I am not proud of how I was raised but I'm talking about a house(s) with dog urine in the carpet never cleaned and fleas galour. Filthy counters with dishes piled up. You get the picture. So I think I will stick with the genetic link, overuse of antibiotic, past disease trigger.
Posted 8/3/2008 12:22 PM (GMT 0)
Makes perfect sense. I've been saying that for years. I agree with Kazygirl's post.
Posted 8/3/2008 1:29 PM (GMT 0)
Yup, I too agree with kazygirl. Or at least her GI! It's an overall concern- definitely kid's & adults are getting more alleriges/asthma & immune system disorders due to all the antibacterial crap around these days. My Mom is a total clean freak, but I don't think that had anything to do with my UC- autoimmune disorders are rampant in my family, so it's just bad genes.

Posted 8/3/2008 3:12 PM (GMT 0)
The article also looks at "how many siblings a child had, his or her spot in the family birth order, and whether the family lived in an urban or rural area. A rural environment is considered generally less hygienic than an urban one." People who grew up with only one sibling were two to three times more likely of getting IBD than someone with five of more siblings. I found that interesting. It also said kids who attend daycare are less likely to get allergies than young kids who spend little time with their peers.
Posted 8/3/2008 4:33 PM (GMT 0)
Hmm, interesting. My parents aren't germophobes, but our house has been relatively clean. I only have one sibling though. The article didn't elaborate on birth order--that would be interesting to look at as well (I'm a first born).
I think the hygiene theory is onto something--obviously 3rd world countries are not usually as clean as industrialized ones and IBD is not common in those places. It would be interesting to do a study comparing IBD rates in most advanced parts and least advanced parts in a non-industrialized country.
Posted 8/3/2008 5:09 PM (GMT 0)
This theory can still be related to IBD as a trigger for those who are predisposed to getting IBD and chances are high that not everyone's trigger(s) will be the same, so I think there is room for this idea but it could be a weak trigger and not a strong one like smoking for CD is.

:)
Posted 8/3/2008 5:44 PM (GMT 0)
I became a clean freak about 10 years ago. I was diagnosed with UC 2 years ago. Out of 19 cousins, 12 aunts & uncles & tons of distant cousins, I am the most germophobic of all of them and the only one that has IBD....well, except one adopted cousin who comes in 2nd on the germophobe scale and has crohns. She was diagnosed about 6 months before me. We are the same age. All sort of weird coincidences. I live in Seattle and she lives in Toronto.
Posted 8/3/2008 8:25 PM (GMT 0)
I grew up as victim of apartheid, homeless with no access to clean water, toilets and bathrooms. I grew up in filth but I am suffering from colitis. I do not believe in this cleanliness theory.
Posted 8/3/2008 8:56 PM (GMT 0)
if they ever saw the house I grew up in it would totally wreck their theory and I was living in a dumpy apt when I got UC., I think there were some parts of that apt that had not been cleaned in at least 50 years (very old house converted to an apt). I did not become a clean person until I bought my home 4 yrs ago.
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