Measles

Did you know childhood illnesses like measles actually serve us in adulthood and unlock mechanisms in the body to later protect us from getting more severe and deadly  ailments like various types of cancers for example.
Here is one example:
Catching the mumps helps to prevent ovarian cancer:
“Mumps parotitis may lead to expression and immune recognition of a tumor-associated form of MUC1 and create effective immune surveillance of ovarian cancer cells that express this form of MUC1.”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2951028/
Here are more links just for fun
2016: “One of the largest studies to date reported an inverse relationship between a history of chicken pox and glioma, a type of brain cancer, meaning that children who have had the chicken pox may be less likely to develop brain cancer.
https://www.bcm.edu/403-access-denied
Alternative link? ( http://outbreaknewstoday.com/chickenpox-health-benefits-baylor-researchers-report-lowered-risk-of-brain-cancer-69418/  )
“Childhood contagious diseases had a protecting effect against coronary heart disease. The risk for acute coronary events decreased significantly with increasing number of childhood contagious diseases.”https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16780845/
“Compared to the unexposed, patients with zoster vaccination had 2.2 and 2.7 times the odds of developing arthritis and alopecia, respectively.”https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26151783/
"Measles and mumps, especially in case of both infections, were associated with lower risks of mortality from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease."
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26122188/
"Significantly fewer [women with cancer of the ovary] recollected an attack of mumps, measles, or rubella."https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/588853/
"The study confirms the hypothesis that an inverse relationship exists between febrile infections and malignant melanoma"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1450674/
"Our retrospective study showed a significant association between febrile infectious childhood disease [FICD] and the risk of developing cancer. The number of FICD decreased the cancer risk, in particular for non-breast cancers."https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9824838/
"Our findings provide additional support to the hypothesis that infections by most common childhood pathogens may protect against Hodgkin lymphoma [...]. Measles may provide a protective effect against non-Hodgkin lymphoma."https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16406019/
“In our patients, two protective factors against ovarian carcinoma appear to be operative: a history of pregnancy and of infection by mumps, measles, rubella, or chickenpox.”https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC479015/
“Analysis of the cumulative influence revealed a consistent pattern of results pointing to a reduction in melanoma risk with increasing numbers of recorded infections and fever height.”https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10596918/
“This suggests that adults with glioma were less likely than controls either to have had prior varicella-zoster virus infection or to have an immunoglobulin G antibody response adequate to indicate positivity.”https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9098175/
“Clinical or laboratory evidence of varicella-zoster virus infection has been consistently associated with lower glioma risk in case-control studies, suggesting a protective effect against glioma.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21792750/
“With a decreasing mortality from infectious illnesses, there may have been a reduction in the activation of immunological mechanisms against transformed cells in early phases of carcinogenesis.”https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9928868/
“Many new vaccines have been introduced in recent years to counter…infectious diseases. The higher incidence of some cancers amongst individuals of a higher socioeconomic status may reflect the negative aspects of reduced exposure to acute infections.”https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16490323/
“https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0091674905021287
<or>
( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16387585/ )
“These results are compatible with the hypothesis that the risk of developing multiple sclerosis may be associated with acquiring certain infectious childhood diseases at a later stage in comparison to normal controls.”https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9648121/
“These results support the hypothesis that reduced exposure to infection in the first few months of life increases the risk of developing acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.”https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15849205/
1980: “A number of well known physicians in the past century have reported that cancer patients rarely had had infections or infectious diseases.”https://www.cancerresearch.org/.../8_THE-BENEFICIAL...
( ?? https://www.cancerresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/CRI_media_HCN-Monographs_8_THE-BENEFICIAL-EFFECTS.pdf_ext.pdf
 
2006: “Exposures to febrile infectious childhood diseases were associated with subsequently reduced risks for melanoma, ovary, and multiple cancers combined, significant in the latter two groups.”https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0361090X06000043
( or? https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16490323/ )
2021: "The study results indicate that some childhood infectious diseases (i.e. measles) are associated with better cognitive functioning in old age."
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-psychogeriatrics/article/abs/childhood-viral-infections-may-be-beneficial-to-cognition-in-old-age/7A21594BDE422DECFC1D8B93430C1E20
2015: “Recent influenza infections were inversely associated with laryngeal cancer risk. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00405-015-3528-6
This 1977 study found that incidence of ovarian cancer was significantly lower in women with a history of having contracted measles, mumps, rubella, or chicken pox in childhood, by 53%, 39%, 38%, and 34%, respectively. https://jech.bmj.com/content/31/3/148
2015: Adults with a history of having acquired measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, pertussis or scarlet fever were 20% less likely to develop genital, prostate, GI, skin, lung, or ENT cancer if they had experienced any one of these infections, …
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9824838/
Bonus:
2002: “Mass varicella vaccination is expected to cause a major epidemic of herpes-zoster, affecting more than 50% of those aged 10–44 years at the introduction of vaccination.”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264410X02001809
2005: “We estimate universal varicella vaccination has the impact of an additional 14.6 million (42%) HZ cases among adults aged <50 years during a 50 year time span at a substantial cost burden of 4.1 billion US dollars”
https://europepmc.org/article/MED/15837242