Posted on 05/04/2012 10:07:46 PM PDT by neverdem
Amish children raised on rural farms in northern Indiana suffer from asthma and allergies less often even than Swiss farm kids, a group known to be relatively free from allergies, according to a new study.
"The rates are very, very low," said Dr. Mark Holbreich, the study's lead author. "So there's something that we feel is even more protective in the Amish" than in European farming communities.
What it is about growing up on farms -- and Amish farms in particular -- that seems to prevent allergies remains unclear.
Researchers have long observed the so-called "farm effect" -- the low allergy and asthma rates found among kids raised on farms -- in central Europe, but less is known about the influence of growing up on North American farms.
Holbreich, an allergist in Indianapolis, has been treating Amish communities in Indiana for two decades, but he noticed that very few Amish actually had any allergies.
As studies on the farm effect in Europe began to emerge several years ago, Holbreich wondered if the same phenomenon might be found in the United States.
He teamed up with European colleagues to compare Swiss farming children and non-farming children to Amish kids in Indiana.
Amish families, who can trace their roots back to Switzerland, typically farm using methods from the 1800s and they don't own cars or televisions.
The researchers surveyed 157 Amish families, about 3,000 Swiss farming families, and close to 11,000 Swiss families who did not live on a farm -- all with children between the ages of six and 12.
They found that just five percent of Amish kids had been diagnosed with asthma, compared to 6.8 percent of Swiss farm kids and 11.2 percent of the other Swiss children.
Similarly, among 138 Amish kids given a skin-prick test to determine...
(Excerpt) Read more at ca.news.yahoo.com ...
That's fresh, whole, raw milk. Plus they don't use chemicals or genetically modified organisisms. And we wonder why the Monsanto controlled government is after the.
According to the clonal selection theory of immune system function, substances that one encounters very early in life do not later generate a strong immune response.
No doubt that it can cause any of those things... so it must be uber fresh. I was thinking the however, in some dark parts of the world soldiers were given a large glass of infested water to drink and put on a cot. An IV could be started for hydration. What doesn’t kill us, only makes us more immune.. until our immune system stalls. As a microbiology minor, I would like my milk and other food zapped, flashed or irradiated to kill pathogens. I would drink raw milk, if I collected it fresh, as aseptically as possible. I do like the unmodified food though.
The key word there is “may.” It would be interesting to see how many Amish actually come down with that list of problems.
When I was a kid, there was this one kid that had allergies. The other kids didn’t even know what this meant.
I’ve wondered about the peanut allergy. No kids I knew in grade school or high school or college had peanut allergies that I knew of. Now they are all over the place. Years ago everyone freaked out since young kids choked on peanuts and they also choked on eating peanut butter straight. The advice was no peanuts until they are two or three.
I wonder if the delayed introduction of peanuts is the problem. Sure, don’t feed peanuts or a peanut butter sandwich so a young kid, but give them a small taste of it on a regular basis when they are young.
The kids with allergies these days seem to have overly fussy parents. Also, everyone is washing their hands every time they touch something. I never heard of the “three second rule” as a kid. Any food we dropped as a kid went into our mouths unless there was so much dirt on it that it was too gritty. Kids rub their finger on a rough surface these days and they immediately want a band-aid. We raised our kids outdoors in the dirt and they don’t have any allergies.
What do you think? What changes did you ‘feel’ when you made the move... if any. How soon after moving did you start to have allergic reactions?
The more you try to avoid something the more likely it is you get it.
Bingo!
Yep - 3-second rule in the “yard” and no disinfectants on every surface to “ptotect” them from the germs they need to be exposed to if they want healthy immune systems.
Finished. Please send more.
This is in Northern Indiana. There are vast fields of mint.
We really do need more information.
BTW, raw milk eaters, if all Amish drink the stuff why aren't they all without allergies.
I think some of them cheat eh!
Years ago, before we knew about the peanut allergy, they died ~ end of story. That’s why you didn’t hear about it.
I have personally observed Amish children walking barefoot in their family’s dairy corrals...
Amen. They are also open to chiropractic, which can help with allergies.
I’m guessing 2 things:
Early exposure to a multitude of natural allergens from living a country life.
Consumption of relatively natural, unadulterated foods & drink.
I think science will ultimately find that young children need wide exposure to the natural world, not sheltering from it, in order to build the immunities they need in life. City living is inadequate to fortify a child to live in a dangerous world.
I would throw in a third - lots of physical exercise.
The peanut allergy problem totally amazes me. When I waa growing up in the fifties and sixties, that kind of allergy was totally unknown. I know it's real, but why? And if we have problems with allergies that were unknown twenty-thirty years previous, what new allergies will arise in the near future? Scary. Should we send everyone to the farm for a month or two when they're young?
According to the article, drinking raw milk did appear to have something to do with it.
You need to clean that up. Half your pictures and l8inks no longer work.
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