The Great Outdoors Is Good for Allergies

A new study reveals that people who grow up in more rural environments are less likely to develop allergies. The reason may be that environments rich with species harbor more friendly microbes, which colonize our bodies and protect against inflammatory disorders.
Compared with healthy individuals, atopic individuals had lower environmental biodiversity in the surroundings of their homes and significantly lower generic diversity of gammaproteobacteria on their skin.

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/01/1205624109
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/05/the-great-outdoors-is-good-for.html?ref=hp