Misbehaving Immune Systems

experts estimate that many allergies and immune-system diseases have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled in the last few decades, depending on the ailment and country.

Immune Systems Increasingly on Attack trots out the "hygiene hypothesis" again. I never found the argument that overly zealous housekeeping and parenting is to blame for immunological disorders very convincing.

The theory has also gained support from a variety of animal studies. One, for example, found that rats bred in a sterile laboratory had far more sensitive immune systems than those reared in the wild, where they were exposed to infections, microorganisms and parasites.

"It's sort of a smoking gun of the hygiene hypothesis," said William Parker of Duke University.

Were the two groups of rats genetically identical? Perhaps lab rats come from genetically susceptible stock? After all, many lines of lab rats and mice were bred to be genetically susceptible to cancer; some forms of cancer are caused or exacerbated by immunological dysfunction.

Which lifestyle is more stressful for rats? The laboratory environment or the wild?

Why are inner-city kids, who experience higher exposures to rat and cockroach dander, more rather than less likely to suffer from asthma than suburban kids?

What about the Japanese studies that showed that asthma and cedar pollen allergies increased the most in children that were exposed to both higher cedar pollen AND ozone counts? Kids exposed to either/or did not experience the huge increases in allergies and asthma. (I wonder if anyone followed up with whether there is something uniquely irritating about ozone or if it is a proxy for general air pollution?)

Unlike William Parker, I don't see a "smoking gun" cause and effect there. I have an alternate explanation which I hope people will set out to disprove with well-designed scientific studies. What if, in the past, fewer people with genes that cause immune dysfunction survived to reproduce?

Anyway, I am not a physician and this is not my area of research. I am merely a scientist who suffers from serious immunological dysfunctions. Blame my mother's housekeeping standards, and you will get me riled up. Criticize my housekeeping standards and I am not responsible for what happens to you.

BTW, I did have an infestation of worms as a child. In Taiwan, where I spent some of my youth, "night soil" was used to fertilize the vegetables. Worms were common. Cockroaches were common, and humongous. So don't blame the lack of worms or cockroaches for the state of my immune system.

The Enchanted Camellia Forest

I didn't think we had a shot of getting Iris out of the house to go to Descanso Gardens today. So I asked her if she would like to visit the enchanted camellia forest. It worked.

This winter was kinder to the camellias than last year.


The cherry trees were also in bloom.

As were the magnolias.





Interpretive dance for the horticultural set.

Like our trip last year, we stopped at downtown Montrose's Honolulu avenue for lunch first at Pho 21. (We were sorely tempted by the BBQ at Zeke's Smokehouse.) We tried a tart frozen yogurt at Yolicious yogurt and then I bought a couple of skeins of Alpaca Silk at Needle in a Haystack.

We were saddened to see that Once Upon a Time Bookstore, one of the finest children's bookstores around, had to move to much smaller quarters. Color me mine, a chain where you can paint your own ceramics, will soon open at their old location.

There was some sort of street fair in addition to the regular farmer's market. It is hard to believe that Montrose is 13 miles from downtown Los Angeles. It's picture perfect today.

Her father's daughter

Each Monday, I walk Iris to school and watch the start of their "Town Hall" school assembly. They start with the pledge of allegiance to the American flag, sing the Star Spangled Banner and then proceed with the weekly announcements.

I missed last Monday because I was on an airplane headed east. However, the week before that, she told me that she was not happy about the pledge of allegiance. What didn't she like?

She objected to having to say "under god". She said it was not fair to people who believe in more than one god.

Read her father's take On Confederate Flags and the Pledge of Allegiance.

I forgot to mention that Iris decided, as long as she has to believe in something, and that there is no way to prove who is correct until after she dies, then she might as well believe in Greek mythology. It is self worship because she is a Greek goddess. Sounds fair. We make the gods in our own image.