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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.
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.
The going theory is this early exposure to the diverse potential allergens and pathogens on a farm trains the immune system to recognize them, but not overreact to the harmless ones. As for why the Amish kids have even lower allergy and asthma rates than the other farming kids, 'that piece of the puzzle we really haven't explained,' Holbreich told Reuters Health.
