If you grew up biting your nails, you’re no stranger to hearing someone yelling at you for the habit. I mean, it isn’t the best habit, but it soothed your nerves, so who cares?
It turns out that there are some health benefits to biting your nails.
In a new study that was published by Pediatrics discovered that kids who suck their thumb or bite their nails past preschool age may be less prone to allergic reactions when they reach adolescence. It turns out that those benefits last all the way into adulthood.
The study, which was conducted by Dr. Robert Hancox of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, followed 1,000 children from birth into adulthood. Parents reported on whether their kids sucked their thumb or bit their nails.
The study found that 31 percent of the participants sucked their thumbs or bit their nails “frequently” between the ages of 5 and 11. Those children were found to be one-third less likely than their peers to develop allergies to pollen and dust by the time they were 13-years-old. The pattern was still the same at age 32 as well.
Dr. Hancox says that the study cannot prove that either habit directly lowered children’s risk of developing these allergies, but he believes that it all relate to the “hygiene hypothesis.” The “hygiene hypothesis” states that “exposure to bacteria and other microbes early in lie helps steer the immune system toward infection-fighting mode, and away from a tendency towards allergic reactions.”
Dr. Hancox also states hat it is “difficult to imagine” what other factors could explain the results of the study.
While this study doesn’t totally justify biting your nails, at least you can tell your friends and family that it isn’t as bad as it seems.
