The "Old Friends" Hypothesis,
the Immune System, the endocrine system & Mental Health
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Why are these changes occurring?
Lifestyle changes, antibiotics, caesarean births and lack of breast-feeding limit the transmission of maternal microbiota to the next generation. Then, unvarying diets lacking plant-derived fibre and polyphenols aggravate this loss of biodiversity. We also have less contact with the natural environment which is the source of many of the microbial partners that we need. Without these microbial inputs in early life our immune systems, endocrine systems and metabolic systems do not develop correctly, and can malfunction. So domestic hygiene is not an important cause of the poor regulation of our immune systems that we see in high-income settings. Other lifestyle changes described in these pages are to blame. http://www.grahamrook.net/OldFriends/oldfriends.html |
University College of London Professor Emeritus Graham Rook discusses how "microbial partners" relate to among other things "Depression," https://www.grahamrook.net/ Microbial "Old Friends" and the regulation of inflammation: Relevance to psychiatric disorders & other information https://www.grahamrook.net/Psychiatry/psychiatry.html 
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"microbiome" & the Endocrine System |
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