When is human advancement and achievement not necessarily so? When improvement leads to deleterious side effects. There are theories that protection of children from the environment by medication and physical intervention causes such things as hay fever and autism. These are only theories and not proven.
Another issue is the massive intake of carbohydrates humans have taken into their bodies over the last ten thousand years. We have not evolved to digest the diet. For most of our evolution we lived on meat and fruit with tubers in small amounts. Societies have changed a great deal.
There are now strong indications that Alzheimer's disease (AD) is caused by people keeping the environment too clean when children are toddling around. "Good" bacteria and viruses do not get into our bodies. It should be noted that the rate of Alzheimer's is rising only in wealthy nations. Lack of microbes could also be increasing strokes.
This seems to be an insurmountable problem. Do we let children catch diseases some of which can be deadly and crippling, or do we continue along our present path? Even providing clean drinking water reduces exposure to microorganisms. Perhaps science can develop ways of injecting the required T-cells into people. It is becoming an epidemic. The number of AD sufferers will treble by the year 2050. Some estimates put the rate higher.
Health by Ty Buchanan