How Have COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdowns Affected Our Immune Systems?
The world is extra than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, so many people have been dwelling with lockdown restrictions, quarantine periods, and physical distancing for an extended length of time. Hand sanitizer and masks are rife, and the common cold has now not felt so common. But what will these lifestyle changes do to our health?
Some humans have voiced concerns over whether their immune structures are being challenged, given that the general public is no longer physically mixing.
Might our immune structures consequently “forget” how to fight off disease-causing agents? For adults and older children, there is some precise news: This is not how immunity works.
According to MIT Medical , by the time a character reaches adulthood, their immune system has already had exposure to lots of bacteria and viruses and is able to mount an assault against these invaders.
Because of this, the immune system has already discovered how to destroy these microbes and will not forget, even in the wake of long-term lockdowns.
But what about youthful children, whose immune systems are still in the gaining knowledge of phase?
Children and the ‘hygiene hypothesis’
It is essentially the idea that there is a hyperlink between the rise in allergic conditions and decreased exposure to microbes during childhood ensuing from hygiene measures, such as frequent hand washing, introduced to defend children from infection.
Dr. David Strachan first proposed this link in an article that seemed in the BMJ trusted source in 1989.
BMJ
- Highly respected journal
- Expert written journal
- Peer reviewed journal
Go to source Trusted Source in 1989.
In a paper that appeared in the journal Perspectives in Public Health in 2016, Prof. Sally F. Bloomfield and colleagues examine Dr. Strachan’s unique paper.
They write: “The immune system is a learning device, and at start it resembles a computer with hardware and software however few data. Additional data must be furnished during the first year of life, via contact with microorganisms from other humans and the herbal environment.”
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