Exposing your children to non-lethal germs at early childhood might strengthen your children's immune system. Don't be a germaphobe! (Image via Romper)

Germ-free environment increases the risk of leukemia in children: Study

Alfonsus Adi Putra
Business & Industry
Medical and Health
Dec 29, 2019
1946
As parents, of course, we want our children to enjoy a clean, healthy, and safe environment. Therefore, we always keep our house clean and weaponized our children with sanitizers and all. However, recent research said that it is not always the right thing. In fact, a silent killer is lurking around the corner.

A paper, published in 2018 in Nature Reviews Cancer journal, pointed out that germ-free environment could trigger acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common leukemia often suffered among children between 0 – 4 years old; it can occur in older people as well.

ALL develops quickly, over days or weeks, affecting blood and spreading to other organs, even the nervous system. The most common treatment for ALL is chemotherapy.

White blood cancer is triggered in two steps. The first step is the genetic mutation before birth within children, predisposing them to the disease. Fortunately, the factor only affects one percent of children globally. The second is later infection after a clean childhood that limited children’s exposure to germs.

The researchers from the Institute of Cancer Research in London, United Kingdom (U.K), pointed out that exposure to infection in early childhood strengthens children’s immune system. Children, growing their first year with less exposure to infection or other children, are most likely to develop the ALL.

While previous research claimed that electromagnetic waves and other environmental factors contributed to cancer development, the paper said otherwise. When babies reach their first year, they should be exposed to non-lethal germs to strengthen their immune systems.

Comparing ALL with autoimmune and type-1 diabetes, the researchers said that the acute blood cancer is preventable once the immune system is strengthened. A population study from the paper said that early exposure to infection during infancy, for example from daycare or breastfeeding, helps to prevent ALL.

However, infection “ONLY” triggers ALL. For other types of leukemia such as infant leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia, they might have other mechanisms and triggers.

While the paper said that exposure to non-lethal germs is good, other immunologists stated that hygiene and environmental safety are a must to maintain.

Moreover, some medical experts still doubt the correlation between ALL and certain germs. Also, the paper lacks the causes and prevention steps for ALL despite paving way further to preventative measures from ALL. Therefore, the paper calls for more research to investigate the correlation between infection and blood cancer in children.

Source: https://cnn.it/39mf1VW

Medical , Health , Prevention , Childhood , Children , Motherhood , Cancer , ALL , Leukemia , Study , Research