Hand Washing Your Dishes Could Be Better For Kids' Health

Doing dishes the old-fashioned way -- by hand -- might help curb a modern-day problem: Rising rates of childhood allergies, a new study suggests. Researchers in Sweden found that children living in families that hand-washed their dishes were about 40 percent less likely to develop allergies compared with kids in homes that used a dishwasher, said study researcher Dr. Bill Hesselmar, an allergist at the University of Gothenburg Department of Pediatrics. The researchers said they suspect that hand-washing dishes doesn't get them as clean as the dishwasher does, which is actually a good thing because it can help protect against allergies by exposing family members to more bacteria. Under an idea known as the "hygiene hypothesis," some health researchers think that increased exposure to microbes during early life may stimulate children's immune systems, and that this stimulation may help reduce the risk that a child will develop allergies, the researchers wrote in their study, published online today (Feb. 23) in the journal Pediatrics. Hand dishwashing is associated with other lifestyle factors that may also cause increased microbial exposure, Hesselmar told Live Science. For example, other studies have suggested that lower income levels, living in more crowded situations and immigration status are all linked with a reduced risk of allergies, and these three factors may also be associated with dishwashing practices. The researchers took these lifestyle factors into account ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news