Preschool Germs Can Be Good

By Lisa McLaughlin

Parents may have a new reason to feel good about sending their children to preschool this fall. According to a study in this month's Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention journal, children who attend day care or nursery school for at least one year before kindergarten are about 36% less likely than those not in preschool to develop Hodgkin's lymphoma as young adults. The study's scientists, from the Harvard School of Public Health, Yale University and Johns Hopkins Medical Institute, suggest that early contact with other kids' germs and exposure to common childhood infections help the immune system mature, making kids less susceptible to this form of cancer later in life. An overall drop in Hodgkin's in the U.S. in recent years may be due to increased preschool attendance. --By Lisa McLaughlin