Armada

(Please move to the "speculation" forum if too speculationy.) I became quite fascinated by the hygiene hypothesis a long while ago. It made a strange amount of sense, in that I'd lived in squalor in one form or another for much of my life (my childhood, being homeless, working at pretty filthy jobs) and have never had allergies or gotten sick too often. The way I see it (as an admitted layman), the immune system is like a muscle: something that weakens and atrophies without adequate challenge and stimulation. Some of the most illness-prone people I know (other than the obviously unhealthy) are germ-phobes and hand sanitizer addicts. More than just keeping the immune system up to snuff, I have, for the last couple years, made it a part of my lifestyle to challenge and "exercise" my immune system, within reason. Namely, eating lots of raw food and purposely leaving food unrefrigerated, letting it sit well past its expiration date or otherwise allowing it to push the threshold of spoiling. As long as it tastes fine (I'm no masochist) and doesn't make me sick, I've no qualms with the "ick factor" that might bother other people. I have definitely learned from experience and trial and error, having had some close calls with food poisoning (nothing too serious), as well as doing adequate research: I know there's a worthy distinction to be made between ingesting reasonable and increasing amounts of bacteria (which is my goal, mostly) and the threat of toxic byproducts (eg. botulism) and parasites, neither of which I believe are a prudent way to challenge my immune system. My point being, I realize there's some inherent risk in what I'm doing, and have taken what I believe are appropriate precautions. Anyhow, it's worked out great for me. I literally haven't been sick in years, and essentially don't have to worry about food poisoning. Which is good because I'm kind of lazy and absent-minded sometimes. A couple days ago I ate a burger I'd accidently left out for at least 9 hours. Tasted a little funky, honestly, but I felt fine. Now, I definitely wouldn't recommend just anybody doing this willynilly. It's been a long and incremental process for me, and could be dangerous for people with weak immune systems (ironically, the people I feel could use it the most). Anyhow, although I realize this isn't necessarily hard science the way I've been doing it (I don't have a hemocytometer to count the things swimming around in my food or anything like that) and could conceivably be seen as mere "speculation" (I believe there's enough evidence out there call this mostly factual, personally), I am above all interested in other people who know more than me opinions on the concept of training one's immune system. Especially in a hyper-sanitary culture that is rife with allergies, autoimmune disorders and, arguably, fragile (in the face of common pathogens to which we are otherwise mostly unexposed) immune systems. Specifically, 1: Is it plausible, to you, that the immune system can be conditioned, "exercised" and strengthened? (Kinda my main premise here). And 2: Do you think it is valuable, prudent or important in any way to do so, and/or to encourage others to do so as well, within reason? Sorry for the long post, tried to make it easy to read at least. All comments, questions, suggestions, etc. are appreciated in advance. Thank you.

We've coevolved with them for millions of years, so no. Although, I know thrust (an oral yeast infection, basically) can get out of control in people with poor hygiene, weak immune systems and spread down the esophagus, potentially causing problems. That, and I knew a guy who got a really nasty infection from punching someone in the mouth and cutting his hand on his teeth.

I'm no expert either, but I lived in Crescent City, CA - a city whose history is defined, in part, by a massive tsunami that was generated from near Anchorage, AK, that destroyed much of the town in the 60's. Last year the docks were banged up pretty bad by the 2011 earthquake in Japan, the same one that caused the Fukushima crisis. I'm fuzzy on all the details, feel free to look it up yourself. Both earthquakes were farther away from California than Cuba is from the east coast of the Antilles and Central/South America, I think. Not positive. Point being that although Crescent City is notoriously susceptible to tsunami's, it seems plenty plausible to me that an earthquake near Cuba could effect the countries you mentioned. Then again, I don't know how severe an "effect on the coast" you're thinking of. Again, no expert. Just someone who lived in a freakishly tsunami prone town. Hope this helps.