I knew it! Cleanliness leads to disease

[ladysycamore]

"The cleaner everyone is, the less stimulation their immune system gets," says Sarvetnick. "Their immune system tends to be incomplete."

Hmm..not good news for me. I *have* to be as clean as possible because of the peritoneal dialysis that I am on. Before connecting to the machine at night, patients are told to wash their hands for *at least* 3 minutes with anti-bacterial soap AND use Purell right before handing the catheter and the dialysis solution bags (gotta use the Purell when disconnecting too). Knock wood, I haven't been sick in a while. And I mean *really* sick, like the flu or anything. I attribute that to a pretty good immune system.

I'm afraid that if in the event that I get a kidney transplant, that will change because of the cocktail of immunosuppressants that patients have to take every day to avoid rejection of the organ. Wonder what those scientists at The Scripps Research Institute say about transplanted patients who have to be cleaner than clean every single day (and to try to avoid sick people during the first couple of months after surgery....not easy to do).

*sighs* I can see me now: I'm going to become such a phobic about germs....