Yes, I was once one of those compulsive women who sanitized everything to the max. You know the type: bleach on the counters, bottles of hand sanitizer in the car, sluicing down grandchildren multiple times daily. I guess I was germophobic!
And I couldn’t have been more wrong. In fact, what I was doing with all of this obsessive cleaning and germ avoidance was to compromise my immune system and those of everyone around me.
It turns out—who would have guessed?—that we need exposure to all kinds of germs in order to maintain strong immune systems.
It is logical. I was behaving in an illogical way and I suspect this may be true for many of my readers as well.
It goes back to the old idea of “Use it or you’ll lose it.”
It’s like flexing muscles. If our immune systems are not challenged from time to time, they become flabby and weak.
I think I woke up in a conversation with a doctor friend a few years back when she said, “If you brag about never getting a cold, that’s not a good thing. You need a cold every year or so to keep your immune system strong.”
OK—now if you’re eating in my home, I can assure you that my counters are clean, that I wash my hands and that you won’t be eating food that has dropped on the floor or that the dogs have licked.
When I travel, I use my favorite fallback, Young Living’s Thieves’ Oil, to give me some protection against the circulating viruses in plane cabins. I always wear a scarf to avoid touching door handles and escalator handrails. I still use hand sanitizers on shopping carts. I cover my mouth and nose when I sneeze or cough. That part of my germophobia remains. I’m not eager to tempt fate too much.
But I also no longer consider it a personal failure if I get a cold and neither should you.
A few years back, my husband was teaching elementary school kids. They were so cute and sooooo full of germs. In that one school year, I think we each had at least six colds. Yes, that was time to draw the line. I gave him an industrial-sized bottle of hand sanitizer and urged him to bathe himself in it every night before he came home.
But I also know that those kids were circulating ever-escalating viruses precisely because their parents thought they were doing the right thing by “protecting” their children from colds, asthma and even infections by slathering them with hand sanitizer.
We now know of the “farm effect” that shows that children who live on farms, where they have huger exposure to animals, dander, manure and dust actually have far fewer incidents of asthma and allergies, especially hay fever, not to speak of the same results for children who live in homes with pets. It seems counter-intuitive, but it’s not at all.
Children automatically put dirt and other unspeakable things in their mouths. The microbes in soil inoculate them against the attack of less benign microbes. This is an evolutionary result of the instinctive need for children to develop strong immune systems and to maintain them throughout their lives.
How to create your own “farm effect” for yourself and your family:
Ditch all antibacterial products. This includes antibacterial soaps, cleaning products and, yes, hand sanitizers.
Play in the dirt. Get the whole family involved in gardening and planting. It’s fun, healthy and exposes you all to those healthy soil microorganisms. Urban dwellers, fear not. You can get the most of the same effects by sitting on the grass in your local park and even in container gardening on a windowsill.
Have a clean diet. Avoid processed foods, especially those that contain GMOs and glyphosate (the active ingredient in RoundUp) You won’t be able to tell by the label, but a good starting place is to avoid all processed foods containing corn, soy and now, sadly wheat. Go organic as much as possible and don’t be too obsessive about washing soil off organic veggies and fruits.
Take a mud bath. My friend, Dr. Christiane Northup, suggests taking up mud sports like mountain biking or hiking or even wading barefoot in mud puddles and reveling in the feel of mud on your bare skin. She also suggests giving yourself a DIY spa facial with an organic mud pack.
As I finish this piece, it occurs to me that there is an immune stimulating effect to be gained simply by letting go of the stress of trying to keep those nasty germs at bay. Relax and enjoy them instead!
