Amish Farms May Protect Children From Asthma

Growing Up on Amish Farms Protects Children Against Asthma

Substances in house dust help reprogram immune cells, study finds

John Easton | August 4, 2016 

By probing the differences between two farming communities—the Amish of Indiana and the Hutterites of South Dakota—an interdisciplinary team of researchers found that specific aspects of the Amish environment are associated with changes to immune cells that appear to protect children from developing asthma.
In the Aug. 4 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers showed that substances in the house dust from Amish, but not Hutterite, homes were able to engage and shape the innate immune system (the body’s front-line response to most microbes) in young Amish children in ways that may suppress pathologic responses leading to allergic asthma.

You can’t put a cow in every family’s house, but we may be able to protect children from asthma by finding a way to recreate the time-tested Amish experience. --Prof. Carole Ober

Source: https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2016/08/04/growing-amish-farms-protects-children-against-asthma

Source: http://www.ladycarehealth.com/common-causes-of-asthma/

Source: https://www.bestonlinemd.com/what-is-asthma-symptoms-attac/

<more at https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2016/08/04/growing-amish-farms-protects-children-against-asthma; related articles and links: http://www.popsci.com/an-amish-environment-protects-against-asthma-new-research-shows (An Amish Environment protects Against asthma, New Research Shows. August 4, 2016) and http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-amish-kids-are-protected-from-asthma/ (Why Amish kids are less likely to get asthma. August 4, 2016)>