Children should be allowed to play in dirt

It may sound a bit bizarre, but germs really are good for you, says a new study. Researchers have carried out the study and found that being too clean may impair the skin’s ability to stay healthy and heal itself — in fact, bacteria on the surface of the skin play an active role in combating inflammation.

It may sound a bit bizarre, but germs really are good for you, says a new study. Researchers have carried out the study and found that being too clean may impair the skin’s ability to stay healthy and heal itself — in fact, bacteria on the surface of the skin play an active role in combating inflammation.

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According to them, this is because the bugs dampen down over-active immune responses which can lead to rashes or cause cuts and bruises to become swollen and painful.

“These germs are actually good for us,” the Daily Express quoted lead researcher Professor Richard Gallo of the University of California as saying.

The findings may provide a molecular basis for the “hygiene hypothesis”.

First proposed in the 1980s, this suggests that early childhood exposure to bugs might “prime” the immune system to prevent allergies.

The theory also helps explain the high rates of allergic diseases in “cleaner” industrialised countries.