get rid of the germs! ...or not

In my study of health and nutrition, germs and disease, herbs and natural remedies, and illness prevention, I recently came across an interesting observation.

As the daughter of a nurse, I grew up hearing the story of the long-ago maternity patients who died, and whose babies died, because their doctors came straight from the morgue to deliver these babies, without stopping to wash their hands first.  When these doctors started washing their hands, the mortality rates dropped dramatically.  The moral of the story was that we should always wash our hands after using the bathroom, before eating, after handling pets and other animals, before working in the kitchen, etc.  And, of course, with a story like that being ingrained into my thinking, I couldn't do anything but wash my hands when told.  The child-me probably rolled my eyes a few times, but I washed.

Tonight I read a short summary of the actual historical account.

Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian obstetrician, was practicing medicine when childbirth was just beginning to occur more frequently in hospital.  At that time, close to 30% of all maternity patients were dying of what was then referred to as "childbirth fever", an infection of the female reproductive organs, that developed after birth.  Strangely, home birthing mothers were not susceptible to this infection, so many families felt they had reason to fear physicians.  In those days, doctors working in autopsy rooms often went straight to their living patients afterward, delivering babies, and moving on to other patients without washing their hands in between each encounter.  But since most people never thought twice about dirty hands, it took a while for them to begin to make the connection.

Until Dr. Semmelweis came along.

Dr. Semmelweis took note of the fact that midwives, who never performed autopsies, had a much lower mortality rate among their patients than doctors did.  Then one day a close friend of his accidentally cut his hand while performing an autopsy.  Shortly thereafter, he came down with the fever, which soon killed him.  Dr. Semmelweis believed this was more than a coincidence, and began washing his hands before and after working with autopsies and living patients.  He also encouraged his fellow physicians to do the same, but since what we think we know is the greatest hindrance to discovery of new facts, these doctors did what many doctors and scientists still do today: they laughed him to scorn and continued with their own theories; in this case, their practice of working with dirty hands.

It took some time, but when Dr. Semmelweis' mortality rates dropped dramatically, more physicians began washing their hands, and "childbirth fever" began to be a disease of the past.

And thus began the "good hygiene" campaign.  People everywhere were warned of the dangers of disease-causing germs, and were strongly advised to wash their hands frequently.  People began to clean everything more thoroughly, and there was a general improvement in health wherever good hygiene and good house cleaning habits were adopted.

Yet all the while, one important fact was overlooked.  One question failed to be asked.  Why were an overwhelming majority--more than 70%--of maternity patients NOT dying of "childbirth fever"?  Why were so many women surviving, and bringing strong, healthy children into the world, in spite of their doctors' "germy" hands?  There had to be something more to staying healthy than merely keeping clean.

Enter Professor Max von Pettenkofer.  When this brilliant German bacteriologist heard that a former student of his, Dr. Robert Koch, was doing experiments with cultured cholera bacteria, he sat up and took notice.  Dr. Koch was quite famous.  He had received a Nobel prize for isolating and identifying tuberculosis and anthrax along with cholera, and his students were well on their way to doing the same for other diseases.  His theory was that cholera-causing microbes will always cause cholera; essentially, he was stating that all (not merely some) who are exposed to cholera will come down with the disease.

Professor Pettenkofer disagreed.  To prove his point, he asked Dr. Koch to send him some cholera bacteria.  When the package arrived, the professor promptly drank the whole thing.  Of course, everyone exclaimed over the foolishness of this rash act, and expected him to become deathly ill immediately.  On the contrary, he merely suffered a bit of mild diarrhea.  He came through his risky experiment virtually unscathed. 

Dr. Koch's conclusion?  "The important thing is the disposition of the individual."

In other words, if you boost your immune system, you will be more resistant to disease.

But people weren't yet ready to say things quite that way.  Instead, they focused more on washing their hands and cleaning their houses.  And modern technology kept up with the times with the manufacture of disinfectants, and antibacterial salves and soaps.  People had never been cleaner, and many of the old diseases such as those whose bacteria Dr. Koch had identified began to disappear.

There was, however, a change in health among the aristocracy.  Remember Theodore Roosevelt's childhood asthma?  That was a new illness, becoming more and more prevalent among the children of the upper class.  Allergies, hay fever, and skin rashes also began to be more common, again among the wealthier families.  In fact, these maladies became known as "diseases of the rich".

Not until the 1980s did people begin to connect these new illnesses with extreme cleanliness practices.  The British Medical Journal published an article in which it was observed that children with older siblings were less likely to develop allergies.  They also noted that throughout the late 19th/early 20th centuries, large, rural families and farmhands had been healthier than their more prosperous contemporaries.  Finally, in 2008, a study was published in which it was revealed that children who grew up with pets, particularly dogs, experienced fewer cases of asthma than those raised in pet-free environments.

So what do rural children living with lots of brothers, sisters, pets, and often farm animals have that suburban children, living with fewer siblings, and without pets, don't have?  Those pesky little creatures commonly known as germs.  Actually, they are microbes, and there are more of them that are good for you than otherwise.  Microbes, both good and "bad", keep your immune system in practice.  By keeping you constantly exposed to a certain amount of "germs", microbes keep your immune system strong in the same way soldiers are kept sharp by constant watching for and fighting against their enemies.

Children are better off living with a certain amount of dirt.  Yes, they should wash their hands after using the bathroom.  But unless they are covered in mud, it's okay for them to eat their peanut butter sandwiches and their apple slices while playing in the sandbox or weeding in the garden.

Once at a cookout during my childhood, I dropped my hot dog in the dirt by the fire pit.  My mother wanted me to wash it off, but my dad merely brushed it off with his hands and tucked it into my bun.  "It's clean dirt," he assured my mother.  "It won't hurt her."

Turns out, my dad probably had a good point.

my summary of Understanding Holistic Health, "Chapter One: Germ vs. Terrain Theory", by Jessie Hawkins, published by Vintage Remedies School of Natural Health