allergies

O* G*

Thanks to Dorene for the necessary statements on the
If-you-can't-beat-the-strong-ones-beat-the-weak-ones-and-if-you-can't-blame-
the-poor-ones-blame-it-on-nature kind of strategy.

Suffering from a strong pollen allergy myself I want to add, that the best
therapy I found on this, was getting my hands dirty in an urban children's
farm. Even though I admit having suffered from the pollinating trees there
for the first few years, the intensity of allergy problems has very much
decreased since then and the symptomes left I can now handle much easier.
Having been involved in some of the tree planting myself and seeing them
growing up over the years together with my own children this rewarding
experince by far outweighs the suffering I had before, even if getting
involved in urban farming had not reduced the nose dripping, eyes stiching
and asthmatic breathing problems.

Latest research done among school children in Germany revealed the
following:

Excessive hygienic regimes and social isolation as well as
over-protectiveness in suburban one-child-families are high risk factors in
the development of allergies, asthma and neuro dermitis.

The national magazine of pharmacies which is not exactly suspective of
promoting radical health research published an article in its April issue of
this year, that children exposed to nature experiences and dirt digging in
their early childhood are much less affected by allergies in their later
life. The same is true for children growing up in bigger families or
attending day care centres as opposed to those from single child families
and those with less social contacts.

Instead of blaming trees it would be much more helpful to allow children a
more natural, social and "dirty" way of growing up

Oliver Ginsberg

BdJA educational consultant
Admiralstr. 16
10999 Berlin

fon: ++49-30-614 02 172
fax:  ++49-30 614 02 173
e-mail: ginsberg@blinx.de
www.bdja.org/oli/index

_______________________________________________
community_garden maillist  -  community_garden@mallorn.com
https://secure.mallorn.com/mailman/listinfo/community_garden