Skip to main content
Search

Evolution, human-microbe interactions and the "epidemic" of inflammation-related disorders (alias: the hygiene hypothesis)

Published on July 31, 2016   31 min

A selection of talks on Immunology & Inflammation

Please wait while the transcript is being prepared...
0:00
GRAHAM ROOK: Hello, my name is Graham Rook from University College, London. Today I'm going to talk about evolution, human microbe interactions, and the epidemic of inflammation-related disorders. The high income countries are facing massive increases in a whole range
0:14
of chronic inflammatory disorders, and there's increasing evidence that this is at least partly due to changes in our contact with microorganisms. This notion was applied to allergies more than 25 years ago, and was at that time called "the hygiene hypothesis". But in this talk, I hope to demonstrate that our microbial contacts are indeed important, but that hygiene is not an important cause of our current problems. What we are seeing is an effect of other major lifestyle changes. In the high income countries, the immune system
0:46
is attacking all kinds of things it should not attack. For instance, it's attacking the gut contents and the microbiota, the organisms that live in our guts. And this is contributing to inflammatory bowel disease like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Similarly, the immune system is attacking itself, attacking our own bodies, and this leads to autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and Type 1 diabetes. Our immune systems are also attacking harmless molecules in air or food, and this gives rise to allergic disorders like asthma and eczema. And finally, the immune system is frequently maintaining inappropriate inflammation. Rather than simply turning on inflammation when there's some requirement for it, it leaves it on permanently. And permanent background inflammation predisposes us to psychiatric disorders, metabolic disorders, and cardiovascular disease. Now all of these things are happening, particularly, in high income countries more than low income countries, in urban rather than rural communities, and in people of low socioeconomic status more than those of high socioeconomic status. These increases are much too rapid to have

Quiz available with full talk access. Request Free Trial or Login.

Show
Hide

Evolution, human-microbe interactions and the "epidemic" of inflammation-related disorders (alias: the hygiene hypothesis)

Embed in course/own notes