Free Republic

WASHINGTON - Gritty rats and mice living in sewers and farms seem to have healthier immune systems than their squeaky clean cousins that frolic in cushy antiseptic labs, two studies indicate. The lesson for humans: Clean living may make us sick. The studies give more weight to a 17-year-old theory that the sanitized Western world may be partly to blame for soaring rates of human allergy and asthma cases and some autoimmune diseases, such as Type I diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. The theory, called the hygiene hypothesis, figures that people's immune systems aren't being challenged by disease and dirt early...

Drinking alcohol boosts the growth of new nerve cells in the brain, research suggests. But while this might sound good in theory, the Swedish team believe these new cells could contribute to the development of alcohol dependence. Mice fed moderate quantities of alcohol grew extra brain cells, but also showed a preference for alcohol over water. The Karolinska Institute research appears in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology. Brain growth Lead researcher Professor Stefan Brene said: "We believe that the increased production of new nerve cells during moderate alcohol consumption can be important for the development of alcohol addiction and other...

Low, chronic doses of gamma radiation had beneficial effects on meadow voles January 28, 2005 by Karen Kelly (about) (email) A new study from the University of Toronto at Scarborough has found that low doses of radiation could have beneficial effects on health The findings, published in the latest issue of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, found that low, chronic doses of gamma radiation at 50 to 200 times background levels had beneficial effects on the stress axis and the immune axis of natural populations of meadow voles. The paper provides evidence of hormesis from the only large-scale, long-term experimental field...

By John Pike© 2004 Insight/News World Communications Inc. Hormesis, the scientific theory that humans actually need small amounts of poison in their diets, could be the most important environmental event of the 21st century if proved valid. Billions of dollars could be saved in environmental cleanup costs, say researchers, while at the same time improving the health of all organisms, including humans. But at first examination, hormesis appears kooky. The knee-jerk reaction is to reject this phenomenon as pseudoscience or propaganda by polluters, and a few uninformed observers have done just that. But hormesis is a possible, if not highly probable, iconoclastic...

Is radiation good for you? Or dioxin? Or Arsenic? The answer is yes, but only in very small doses, says one of the country's most respected toxicologists. If he's right, environmental regulation will never be the same. Any idiot should be able to poison a plant. That is what Edward Calabrese thought in 1966 as a junior at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts. He was in a plant physiology class at the time, and his lab group had been told to dose some peppermint with an herbicide called Phosfon. The idea was to measure how much a given dose stunted...