Besides songs, one of the best things I think people can put on their iPods are podcasts (basically audio/mp3 files of “talk radio” or “shows” instead of music) from NPR. I listen to it on the subway everyday.

Today, I was listening to the NPR: Science & Health podcast on “Allergies & Hygiene Hypothesis,” and it was talking about how there are more kids with peanut allergy than ever. To be exact, it has doubled from 1997 to 2002. It’s estimated that now 1 in 125 children has peanut allergy.

Although there’s no certain explanation for it yet, Dr. Hugh Sampson, professor of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York, offered & explained a theory called the “hygiene hypothesis,” which I find interesting.

According to the hypothesis, because we now live in a world with everything sterilized, vaccinated, & we’re obsessed with anti-bacterial everything & anything, thus “we’re not stimulating a portion of our immune system with bacterial & viral infections the way we used to.”

My take:
I guess with intellect, comes the increase desire to control our destiny. By covering their house & kids with anti-bacterial sanitizers, some parents think that eliminating all bacterias & viruses ensure the health of their children. But who would have thought that those are the exact things that will make their kids stronger?

This story just reminds me of overprotective parents spending all their time & efforts, trying to control every aspect of their children’s life, hoping them to become something, & then their kids turn out to be something else completely unexpected. And there are a lot of parents like that. I wonder when the old fashion way of simply being an example, and listening & talking patiently to your kids stop working anymore.

“There also appeared to be something related to the type of diet that we eat. The countries that are having problems with peanut allergy are all those were peanut butter especially is ingested.” Peanut is healthy, & peanut butter on bread is easy to make, therefore makes it a perfect fit for the busy lives we now have.

Unfortunately, many kids are now exposed to peanut as early as a week old, due to the fact that “the peanut proteins are transmitted through maternal breast milk.“