THE body’s need to conserve energy may be to blame for the proliferation of
diseases in which the immune system runs riot, says Barbara Fazekas of the
Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology in Sydney.
Fazekas’s theory could help explain the “hygiene hypothesis”—the idea
that the cleanliness of modern life leads to more allergies and autoimmune
diseases. If she is right, then trying to find “disease genes” may not be the
best way to tackle these disorders. “In a different environment, people with
those genes wouldn’t get [such diseases],” she says.
Instead, researchers should concentrate on finding…
