Andrea,
I remember my step-father telling me about a program he saw on the BBC (my parents live in Scotland) that basically said that we have become a society that some would consider "too clean". That we deodorize, homogenize, anti-bacterialize (don't think that's a real word, but it sounded good,lol) everything in our path. So much so that our bodies become so protected from the "good dirt" that they can't cope with certain germs and then we medicate ourselves and on it goes...
I don't think I explained it that well, sorry, but I think there is something to that. What do you think?