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 ...
“Using government figures for foodborne illness for the entire population, Dr. Beals has shown that you are about thirty-five thousand times more likely to get sick from other foods than you are from raw milk,” says Fallon Morell.
“It is irresponsible for senior national government officials to oppose raw milk, claiming that it is inherently hazardous,” says Dr. Beals. “There is no justification for opposing the sale of raw milk or warning against its inclusion in the diets of children and adults.”
Ding ding ding. We have a winner. Urban and suburban landscaping plants—trees in particular—are male, in order to avoid messy litter from blossoms and seeds. Male plants produce polin.
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that these homogenous genetic groups lost many of their allergy genes in the past due to childhood deaths caused by allergy aggravated illness.
Pollen
LOL!
I thinking housing their dogs and cats in barns, as opposed to animals living in your house has something to do with it as well.
Did you really expect people to read all that?
Seriously?
Maybe the Amish kids are less likely to have allergies because they play in real dirt all day.
Amish kids are regular kids,
They just have chores.
Amish kids aint sheltered at all
What of Mennonites?
Quakers?
Whats the statistical skinny?
Maybe next time post a link instead of destroying the thread.
I need to save this for someone. thanks.
It's what they feed the chickens. Chickens fed fish scraps high in omega 3 will pass on omega 3 in their eggs... More so than corn fed chickens.
All of our family has drunk raw milk in our formative years. The source of the milk is key. German farmers (to name one group) tend to be meticulous in their cleanliness.
The Amish also have remarkably low incidence of tooth decay.
They eat a simple wholesome diet not different than my grandparents.
As for myself I can’t refuse Key Lime pie. My dentist will attest to that!
Wow - you’re really intent on getting that message out
there. . .
Kind of reminds me how the cereal industry went after the egg years ago - - - had some of us jumping thru hoops.
I don’t know what’s going on now-a-days with raw milk, or dairy’s producing it, but our 4 daughters were raised on raw milk in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, in southern Calif.
We consumed other raw dairy products, as well.
Who knows how responsible pasturized products, with all their chemical cocktails, may be the indirect cause of a host of illnesess for some people.
(Disclosure: Did not watch videos because my webtv/msntv system cannot play them).
Bless my old fashioned pediatrician who said no shots or meds...let her system fight it out. Two weeks later, she was fine.
She gets a touch every year, more like a runny nose...and that's it.
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