--- title: These Bacteria Make Us More Vulnerable to Allergies and Diabetes description: One theory that explains the increase in allergies, asthma and other immune-related conditions today rests on the fact that we’re too clean canonical: https://time.com/4310281/gut-bacteria-diabetes/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-28T20:08:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:43.258Z article:section: Health og:title: Being too Clean Makes You Vulnerable to Some Diseases og:description: One theory that explains the increase in allergies, asthma and other immune-related conditions today rests on the fact that we’re too clean og:url: https://time.com/4310281/gut-bacteria-diabetes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Being too Clean Makes You Vulnerable to Some Diseases twitter:description: One theory that explains the increase in allergies, asthma and other immune-related conditions today rests on the fact that we’re too clean twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # What Can Happen When You're Way Too Clean > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Health Matters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Health Matters is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The latest health news and expert advice on living well. Health Matters makes the fast-moving world of health more useful, surprising and human, from the latest science and medical breakthroughs to practical ideas for living better. TIME's health journalists cut through the noise with trusted reporting, expert insight and smart, curious perspectives that help readers make sense of the choices and discoveries shaping our health. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Healthy Skeptic: Do Hand Sanitizers Work? [Watch (HLS stream): Healthy Skeptic: Do Hand Sanitizers Work?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/g4TKajCn.m3u8) (2:27)  _Published 2013-11-07. Alcohol hand sanitizers claim to be an effective alternative to hand-washing. But are they as good as they claim? The Healthy Skeptic explains._  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Apr 28, 2016 8:08 PM UTC  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Apr 28, 2016 8:08 PM UTC People are far cleaner than their ancestors were. Thanks to better sanitation systems that remove waste and public works programs that clean water—not to mention the proliferation of soaps, cleaning agents and antimicrobial products that sterilize our environments—we’re exposed to far fewer microbes than ever before. But proponents of the so-called “hygiene hypothesis” say that being too clean changes the bacteria that live within us, making us more susceptible to allergies, asthma and other immune-related conditions. Now, a study published in the journal _Cell_ provides more evidence that this might be true. And it may be related to incidence of diabetes, too. The findings support the hygiene hypothesis, illustrating that the environment in which babies are raised and the microbes they’re exposed to at a very young age can make a big difference in the types of bugs they nurture in their bodies. That in turn can affect their risk of certain diseases. Researchers led by Tommie Vatanen, from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, found that the gut bugs from babies born in a rural part of Russia were significantly different from those found in infants born just across the border in more urban settings in Finland and Estonia. Among the Russian newborns, the dominant byproducts from bacteria were from _E. coli_ or the _bifidobacterium_ species, while newborns in Finland showed more products from Bacteroides species. The Estonian infants showed levels in between the two; in that region, economic development is gradually shifting from an agrarian lifestyle to a more urban one. **MORE:** [Deodorant and Antiperspirant Mess With Your Microbes](http://time.com/4207846/deodorant-antiperspirant-microorganisms/) Not only did the researchers document different types of bacteria in the different populations, but they also found that these correlated with different levels of type 1 diabetes. Rates of the disease were higher among the Finnish babies and lower among those born in Russia. Even after the scientists adjusted for factors that can influence the colonization of gut bugs, such as diet, environment and breastfeeding, which can introduce microbes from the mother to the baby, the difference in microbes between the geographical regions remained strong. “We know the Russian kids lived near or on farms and clearly had exposure to a broad spectrum of microbes in the soil as well as from animals,” says Ramnik Xavier, senior author of the study from the Broad Institute. “The Finns were living in an ultra-clean environment and spent most of their early live in concrete towers that didn’t given them the same exposure.” **MORE:** [Congratulations, You Have Your Own Personal Germ Cloud](http://time.com/4044393/microbe-cloud-microbiome/) In other studies, exposure to the bacterial species found in soil and rural environments was linked to higher production of fatty acids that can fight pathogens responsible for respiratory infections and affect metabolism. Having different colonies of bacteria can therefore result in different ways to educate the immune system, which can give children more or less protection against things like allergies and metabolic disorders like diabetes. “Everyone is going to try to come up with what is the best cocktail of [probiotics](http://time.com/4132550/probiotics-weight-loss-lactobacillus/) to give to the Finnish kids to delay the onset of type 1 diabetes or prevent it in kids who are at high risk,” says Vatenan. “But to do that, we still need more information.” He and his colleagues are already collecting that data; they’re studying the microbes in the guts of the rare people who seem to be protected against developing type 1 diabetes, for example, as well as those who develop the disease more slowly, to see if their bacterial makeup is different in any way. That could fuel studies that try to pinpoint exactly which types and doses of probiotic cocktails may help to control or even prevent conditions like diabetes and allergies. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ]. I keep some hand sanitizer in the glove box and I also keep some in my purse because you never know when you need to clean your hands or get some sticky stuff off. I've got two kids, it's great. It used to be that alcohol based hand sanitizers were found mainly in healthcare facilities, but these days, you see dispensers everywhere, from schools to cruise ships. And many people won't leave the house without their handy bottle of hand sanitizer. So how do these germ fighters stack up against old- fashioned soap and water? Well they're good, but not quite a hands down winner. Research shows that alcohol hand sanitizers can kill most germs, but not all. For example, they're thought to be ineffective against norovirus, a common cause of gastrointestinal illness. Ditto for the bacterium clostridium difficile or C diff for short. It affects people mainly in hospitals and other medical facilities and is potentially deadly. What's more, alcohol based sanitizers don't work well if you have dirt or sweat on your hands. While they're a good backup if you don't have access to soap and water, you're better off washing your hands. That's because unlike sanitizers, scrubbing under running water physically removes germs. If you use a hand sanitizer, it's important to apply it correctly. Use one or two squirts about the size of a dime, rubbing the sanitizer over the entire surfaces of your hands and fingers until they dry. Avoid using hand sanitizers on infants and toddlers, who may put alcohol covered hands in their mouths, and don't let young children use the products unsupervised. Many products contain moisturizers, but when used frequently, they can cause skin dryness and irritation because of the alcohol. As a result, some people turn to alcohol free hand sanitizers, but beware these have been studied far less than alcohol based products so experts aren't sure how well they work. So look for sanitizers that contain at least 60 % alcohol, that way, when soap and water are clean out of reach you'll be getting at least the next best thing. Helping you be healthy skeptic, I'm Robert Davis. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4310281/gut-bacteria-diabetes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4310281/gut-bacteria-diabetes/"},"headline":"What Can Happen When You're Way Too Clean","datePublished":"2016-04-28T20:08:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:55:43.258Z","description":"One theory that explains the higher amounts of allergies, asthma and other immune-related conditions today rests on the fact that we’re too clean. 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