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[ Watch the Video: Good Hygiene May Be Bad For Your Brain ]

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online

Good hygiene typically leads to good health, but new research appearing in the journal Evolution, Medicine and Public Health suggests that people living in industrialized nations could be more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease due to cleanliness.

Specifically, Dr. Molly Fox, lead author of the study and Gates Cambridge Alumna, and colleagues report that men and women in those countries have far less contact with bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms. As a result, that could lead to potential problems with the development of their immune systems, as well as an increased risk of dementia.

The research, which was conducted at Cambridge’s Biological Anthropology division, discovered a “very significant” relationship between a country’s wealth and hygiene and the Alzheimer’s-related “burden” placed on its populace, the authors explained. Higher-income, highly-industrialized nations with large urban areas and better disease-prevention practices tend to exhibit far higher rates of the neurodegenerative condition