Abstract:This article proposes an extension of the hygiene hypothesis to explain
chronic inflammatory diseases (CIDs) and their increase with
westernization. Instead of emphasizing microbes that are missing/reduced
due to westernization, a hypothesis is proposed that emphasizes the
importance of microbes that are relatively novel. Environmental microbes
encountered in association with a pre-agricultural lifestyle would
presumably be the most coevolved with the human immune system and thus
less likely to promote chronic… Show more
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