Children who attend day care or nursery school for at leastone year before going to kindergarten are 36% less likely todevelop a cancer known as Hodgkin’s lymphoma as youngadults. This may be because they develop stronger immunesystems from being exposed to other children early in life.Children from wealthy families are more likely to get thedisease because they have less interaction with otherchildren.
Health researcher Ellen T. Chang says, “Years ofepidemiological evidence have linked the risk of Hodgkin’slymphoma among young adults to high maternal education, fewsiblings, low housing density, and other aspects of higherchildhood socioeconomic status. It has been believed thatthese characteristics postpone childhood exposure to commonpathogens, including the usually harmless Epstein-Barrvirus, which can cause infectious mononucleosis wheninfection is delayed until adolescence. Infectiousmononucleosis is a demonstrated risk factor for Hodgkin?slymphoma.”
In other words, mononucleosis?the dreaded “kissing disease”of teenagers?makes children more at risk for developingHodgkin’s. However, being exposed to the virus while stillyoung makes it less likely you’ll get mono (and Hodgkin?slymphoma) later on.
Enrollment in nursery school has risen from 5% in 1964 to50% between 1995 and 1999, due to an increase intwo-working-parent households.
Wear ourteeshirt to class and after school, sip your chocolate milkout of our beautifulmug!
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