Jugar con el Suelo Previene las Alergias Infantiles y de los Adultos

Hace unos meses editamos el post “La Salud de los Niños y el Contacto con la Naturaleza. Jugando con el Suelo”. Pues bien, hoy mostramos como nos encontrábamos en lo cierto. Investigaciones recientes muestran como jugar con el suelo previene las alergias y el asma desde la infancia.  Cuando los niños y niñas juegan con el suelo entran en contacto con un gran número de microorganismos, preparando y fortaleciendo su sistema inmune para contactos posteriores con microorganismos y sustancias alergógenas. Del mismo modo, un  sistema inmune robusto podría prevenir diabetes, obesidad y otra serie de enfermedades a lo largo de nuestras vidas. En las urbes, nuestros infantes juegan poco con el suelo, así que habrá que remediarlo, por cuanto la incidencia de estas dolencias crece día a día en los países más industrializados, habiéndose convertido en uno serio problema de salud pública. Los científicos autores de este estudio dicen encontrar una relación negativa entre la diversidad bacteriana del “recto” y la incidencia de la enfermedad aludida. En otras palabras, a mayor biodiversidad microbiana en esta parte de nuestra anatomía menor susceptibilidad a padecer alergias y otras enfermedades. ¡No abusar de antibióticos y otras sustancias que diezmen los bichitos de nuestro tracto digestivo!. Como ya comentamos en otros muchos post, sin nuestro arsenal de bacterias, los humanos no podríamos sobrevivir. De aquí que mantener a nuestros infantes en una burbuja aséptica, en lugar de protegerles les perjudica gravemente la salud.

Jugando con el Suelo. Fuente Dreams and Wishes

Ya había leído varios estudios previos en donde se mostraba que los bebés que nacen mediante cesárea padecen a lo largo de su vida que los que vienen a este mundo con normalidad, es decir por la página. Loa rezón estriba en que al pasar por esta última, su microflora  o microbioma se enriquece de las bacterias maternas, proceso que lamentablemente evita la cesárea.  El contacto durante nuestros primeros años con los microorganismos resulta pues esencial para evitar el resto de nuestras vidas problemas asociados al sistema inmune, que no solo alergias y asma. Lamentablemente las ciencias biomédicas han soslayado durante decenios que somos más que una especie es decir, como comentamos en otro post precedente: “Individuos y Ecosistemas o Individuos-Ecosistemas: la Ambigüedad de la Vida y la Importancia del Suelo”.

Por tanto debemos reiterar, una vez más, que a jugar con el suelo, ya este seco o embarrado. Una actividad de lo más saludable para nuestros infantes, a pesar de que debamos lavar mayor cantidad de ropa (eso sí que sea barata y resistente).

Juan José Ibáñez

Dirt Prevents Allergy, Danish Research Suggests

ScienceDaily (Nov. 2, 2011) — If infants encounter a wide range of bacteria they are less at risk of developing allergic disease later in life. This is the conclusion of research from the University of Copenhagen, which suggests completely new factors in many modern lifestyle diseases.

Oversensitivity diseases, or allergies, now affect 25 per cent of the population of Denmark. The figure has been on the increase in recent decades and now researchers at the Dansk BørneAstma Center [COPSAC, Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood], University of Copenhagen, are at last able to partly explain the reasons.

A variety of bacteria offers protection

«In our study of over 400 children we observed a direct link between the number of different bacteria in their rectums and the risk of development of allergic disease later in life,» says Professor Hans Bisgaard, consultant at Gentofte Hospital, head of the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood, and professor of children’s diseases at the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen.

«Reduced diversity of the intestinal microbiota during infancy was associated with increased risk of allergic disease at school age, he continues. But if there was considerable diversity, the risk was reduced, and the greater the variation, the lower the risk.

«So it makes a difference if the baby is born vaginally, encountering the first bacteria from its mother’s rectum, or by caesarean section, which exposes the new-born baby to a completely different, reduced variety of bacteria. This may be why far more children born by caesarean section develop allergies.»

No allergy-causing bacteria

In the womb and during the first six months of life, the mother’s immune defences protect the infant. Bacteria flora in infants are therefore probably affected by any antibiotics the mother has taken and any artificial substances she has been exposed to.

«I must emphasise that there is not one single allergy bacteria,» Professor Bisgaard points out. «We have studied staphylococci and coli bacteria thoroughly, and there is no relation. What matters is to encounter a large number of different bacteria early in life when the immune system is developing and ‘learning‘. The window during which the infant is immunologically immature and can be influenced by bacteria is brief, and closes a few months after birth.

«Our new findings match the large number of discoveries we have also made in the fields of asthma and hay fever,» Professor Bisgaard explains. Like allergies, they are triggered by various factors early in life.

The researchers gathered their data from a unique material consisting of 411 children whose mothers have asthma. This cohort was monitored, interviewed and tested continually from when the children were born 12 years ago, and the COPSAC group has published articles at regular intervals with new knowledge about allergy and asthma ever since.

Findings could be relevant for other modern diseases

Professor Bisgaard acknowledges the irony of something that used to be perceived as a threat to public health, namely bacteria, now turning out to be a fundamental part of a healthy life. He also points out that there may be other couplings, such as between intestinal flora and diabetes or obesity and other lifestyle diseases affecting modern man in the West.

«I think that a mechanism that affects the immune system will affect more than just allergies, he concludes. It would surprise me if diseases such as obesity and diabetes are not also laid down very early in life and depend on how our immune defences are primed by encountering the bacterial cultures surrounding us.»

Story Source: The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Copenhagen.