Human behaviors that contribute to decreased microbe exposure:
- Having less children
- With only one or two children playing in the backyard, visiting friends on play-dates, spending time at school or on the playground, etc., the chance of microbes being carried home to be shared is far less.
- Having no pets
- On a similar note to the prior point, pets would introduce many microbes due to their constant proximity to the ground, time spent outside (in areas humans would not normally be sniffing around/checking out), contrasting hygiene habits, dander, etc.
- Homeschooling children
- Removing the normal, early exposure to microbes that takes place during a child’s primary education years would eliminate countless immune system-developing, microbial encounters.
- Avoidance of hospitals/clinical settings
- As the purpose of these facilities is to treat the sick, they are the perfect place to pick up some new (probably pathogenic) microbes.
- Choices regarding food consumption
- Having a diet comprised of mostly meat or veggies, for example, creates opportunities for the introduction of different microbes, as these types of foods are cultivated, packaged, stored, and prepared in different ways. Cutting out a certain type of food will decrease the likelihood of potentially consuming the associated microbes.
- Preparing own food at home, as opposed to allowing strangers to prepare it in restaurant/fast food settings that cannot be monitored by you and are naturally heavily trafficked.
- Lack of traveling
- Staying in one part of the globe means most likely never being exposed to microbes that are commonly found in another area.
- Choices regarding living environment
- Living in urban versus suburban areas will differentially expose you to certain amounts of people, certain amounts/types of animals, lack or existence of smog/pollution, etc.
