Imo, because ‘germs are good for you’ (which some can be) is a close step to ‘your immune system is a muscle and getting sick is good for you,’ which it’s not.
It’s not about ‘germs being good for you’, it’s about exposure to a highly diverse set of microorganisms in nature and how that can in turn increase the diversity of the microorganisms on your skin which in turn seems to provide health benefits
exposure to diversity doesn’t mean bad things are good for you, it means diversity is more resilient than monoculture and that’s not just true in ecology
I’m gonna say though, these stories make me think more about how access to actual nature is becoming more and more of a class privilege as biodiversity loss and general ecological devastation is continued full steam ahead under capitalism.
Why do you think your skin microbiota care about what economic system you live under?
Imo, because ‘germs are good for you’ (which some can be) is a close step to ‘your immune system is a muscle and getting sick is good for you,’ which it’s not.
It’s not about ‘germs being good for you’, it’s about exposure to a highly diverse set of microorganisms in nature and how that can in turn increase the diversity of the microorganisms on your skin which in turn seems to provide health benefits
exposure to diversity doesn’t mean bad things are good for you, it means diversity is more resilient than monoculture and that’s not just true in ecology
Yeah that’s true, but they’re talking about the emphasis and what function an article like this has in the current economic system
Fair enough.
I’m gonna say though, these stories make me think more about how access to actual nature is becoming more and more of a class privilege as biodiversity loss and general ecological devastation is continued full steam ahead under capitalism.