For Essay #3, please follow the same instructions and guidelines as from the prior essays. As before, you are asked here to conduct outside research in order to identify three recent news articles or scientific reports (not included in assigned class readings) that bear upon a chosen topic relevant to course material. Each essay will consist of two parts: a brief summary of the articles or reports, and a statement about the topic in which you contrast what is already known versus what remains to be learned about the topic. you can find further tips, guidelines, and the grading rubric for our essay assignments. Late submissions will have five points deducted per day late. Ecology of plants and animals, human impacts (including population growth, deforestation, invasive species, and fossil fuels), conservation, and evolution (including how it is taught). Other topics may arise in class; anything we discuss in class is an option for your research essay. Please check with the TAs if you have any questions
Hygiene Hypothesis
Part One: Annotated Summary
Barabasi, et al. “A Step beyond the Hygiene Hypothesis-Immune-Mediated Classes
Determined in a Population-Based Study.” BMC Medicine , BioMed Central, 1
Jan. 2019, bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-019-1311-z.
This research-based article claims that it attempts to make a stage past the hygiene hypothesis
and in said efforts, it exhaustively arranges these examples with ‘latent class analysis’. This
article also highlights the relationship between youth contaminations, atopic ailments, and
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unfavorable youth encounters uncover an arrangement of invulnerable interceded classes that
involves but exceeds the versatile classes identified within the hygiene hypothesis. In addition
to both of these aspects of said research, this article also delves into the socioeconomic facet of
the hygiene hypothesis, as well as the connections between childhood habits, infections, and
traumas.
Cabotaje, Angela. “What Is the Hygiene Hypothesis?” Right as Rain by UW Medicine , 3
Oct. 2019, rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/well/health/hygiene-hypothesis.
This article poses the question “ Is the Hygiene Hypothesis Real? , based upon the title and the
contents of this article, it is safe to assume that the writer is skeptical of the premise that
the Hygiene Hypothesis offers, regarding its effects on the immune system and its
development. While they do not completely reject the theory, they do challenge the
notion that being ‘too clean’ can leave a developing immune system compromised and
claim that the theory and those who subscribe to it do not “tell the full story’. According
to this article, said lack of information is said to be responsible for the confusion
surrounding the matter, statistics to back up this claim are presented as evidence that
hygiene hypothesis is simply based on a biased observation.
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Scudellari, Megan. “News Feature: Cleaning up the Hygiene Hypothesis.” PNAS ,
National Academy of Sciences, 14 Feb. 2017, www.pnas.org/content/114/7/1433 .
In this PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America) Article from 2017, the common misconceptions that surround ‘hygiene
hypothesis’ are addressed. In reading this article, it is made apparent that the
general consensus on our immune systems as a whole is that they fall far below
par, and, in this case, being ‘too clean’ is not to blame. Although the hygiene
hypothesis is a widely accepted theory amongst the general public and academia,
all evidence indicates that ‘early exposure’ should involve pathogens and
microbes that are immune-system friendly, instead of introducing the immune
system to aggressively infectious pathogens early on.
Part Two: Discussion
The Hygiene Hypothesis claims that the surge in many auto-immune diseases, as
well as allergies, can be attributed to the excessive cleanliness we’ve adopted as a people
in the past several decades, this theory has become widespread since the late 1980s and
many experts are coming forward in an attempt to debunk the hypothesis. “Mirroring this
alarming surge in autoimmune and allergic disorders are simultaneous sharp declines
in56- the incidence of mumps, measles, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases in
developed countries, thanks to the advent of vaccines and antibiotics, and to improved
hygiene. In the 1990s, scientists began to suspect that two trends were connected:
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Perhaps the reduction in infections was causing human immune systems to malfunction
in some way.” (Scudellari) As of late, research has led many to believe that this notion is
not so, but instead that one’s personal grooming and hygiene has very little to do with the
quality one’s immune system. Still, the catchy hygiene hypothesis continues to be widely
embraced by the public, the media, and even scientists: Uses of the term in the scientific
literature rose threefold over the past 10 years compared with the decade prior, according
to a search on Thomson Reuters Web of Science. ‘In science, when something has been
propagated for so long, it can be hard to change,’ says Marsha Wills-Karp, chair of
environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public
Health.” (Scudellari) Experts believe that to strengthen the immune system, one must not
avoid cleanliness, instead, one must find a way to incorporate plenty of early exposure to
varying ‘friendly microbes’, these friendly microbes are not to be confused with
infectious diseases, or ‘pathogens’. The hygiene hypothesis is a ‘dangerous misnomer
which is misleading people away from finding the true causes of these rises in allergic
disease, ’ says Sally Bloomfield, chair of the International Scientific Forum on Home
Hygiene and an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine. ‘I’ve even seen things in the media saying we shouldn’t wash our hands. What
the hell are they talking about? ’” (Scudellari) Said theories, have the potential to
invalidate the hygiene hypothesis and change the public’s opinion by placing emphasis
on the importance of having plenty of exposure to microbes and varying
immune-strengthening stimuli, as well as the need for personal hygiene in order to
maintain a healthy immune system. “ If this new hypothesis is true, then cutting back on
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personal hygiene will not have an impact on rates of chronic inflammatory and allergic
disorders; it will, however, increase infections. Recent studies have shown that in
comparison to the western world, underdeveloped countries have a much smaller
percentage of individuals who suffer from allergies and diseases such as diabetes,
ulcerative colitis, and inflammatory bowel syndrome. “Prevalence of food allergy in
preschool children is now as high as 10% in Western countries but remains just 2% in
areas like mainland China. The number of new cases of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in Finland
per year is 62.3 per 100,000 children, compared with just 6.2 in Mexico and 0.5 in
Pakistan. Ulcerative colitis, a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), is twofold
higher in Western Europe than in Eastern Europe—6.5 per 100,000 people versus 3.1 per
100,000 .” (Scudellari) All of the aforementioned conditions have become a recurring
phenomenon in parts of the world that are well established, or in the process of becoming
so.
While there is an overwhelming amount of statistics and data appear to be in favor
of what a majority of the public believe, experts still believe that what’s available isn’t
exactly being interpreted correctly and that there must be a more nuanced approach to the
subject. Throwing out all of one’s current hygiene practices is not only reactionary but
harmful. “That’s what supporters of the so-called hygiene hypothesis think, saying that
the rising rates of allergies, asthma and other autoimmune disorders in children is linked
to our increasingly hygienic surroundings. And while statistics appear to back this up,
experts in the fields of immunology and infectious disease say, not so fast.”
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“To say that being clean means you’re at a higher risk of allergies or asthma is not quite
right,” agrees Dr. John Lynch .” ( Cabotaje) The main issue with all of this is that
accepting the hygiene hypothesis means one is accepting a hypothesis with a plethora of
holes in it. While the theory isn’t absolutely right, going the other way to an excessively
lifestyle isn’t actually sound either. “When you’re talking about the hygiene hypothesis,
the point of contention is that the focus should be less about hygiene and more about
access to the right microbiota,” Lynch explains. If the hygiene hypothesis was to be
enacted as it is often interpreted, immune systems wouldn’t be able to develop properly
and, as a result, malfunction. Much of the evidence used to support the hygiene
hypothesis comes from industrialized countries is that these nations have greater medical
infrastructure and resources to detect autoimmune dysfunctions than the developing
world. Remember, while data appears to back up the hygiene hypothesis, it’s not a
complete picture. It’s not that the hygiene hypothesis gets it all wrong. That’s why
researchers and medical professionals in Lynch’s field of infectious disease and
immunology cringe at the name “Hygiene hypothesis,” he says. What’s the takeaway
from the hygiene hypothesis controversy? “When you’re talking about the hygiene
hypothesis, the point of contention is that the focus should be less about hygiene and
more about access to the right microbiota,” Lynch explains
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