The Amish may be farming the cure for asthma in barnyard animals!

[Maraya1969]

(If someone from the N Y Times see this I am not linking to your site because I cannot copy from your site. So I'll give the links to someone else's site!)

I had asthma as a kid. I also had a horse for a few years and felt so at home in the barn and I can't remember being sick then. I also dreamed of my family moving to a farm. Maybe my body knew something.
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"Amish children who’ve grown up exposed to barnyard germs have much lower rates of asthma than kids raised in more sterilized environments, according to a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The science supports something our grandparents have long suspected: that playing in the dirt toughens kids up. The new research backs up this hygiene hypothesis, suggesting that Amish children inhale microbes from their constant contact with animals during their formative years, which activates their immune systems and protects them against asthma.


The researchers compared the Amish of Indiana to the Hutterites of North Dakota. Both farming groups share genetic backgrounds and simple lifestyles, but there’s a big difference in how they farm.

The Amish raise their barns — which their kids often play in — close to their homes. They use horses for farmwork and transportation, and they shun electricity. But the Hutterites use electricity and live on industrialized farms, with the cows housed in huge barns farther away from the houses that children don’t play in. And guess what? Only 2% to 4% of the Amish suffer from asthma, yet the Hutterites see asthma in 15% to 20% of their members."



http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/amish-farming-cure-asthma-barnyard-animals-article-1.2738543

[pnwmom]

1. Nice theory, but I knew a farm family that had to give up their farm because their son

had such bad allergies there. He was born there and had lived there all his life -- and spent many hours in the barn. The dirt, hay, etc. hadn't toughened him up.

[Maraya1969]

2. Was the rest of his life too sterile? Both my parents grew up on farms and no allergies

Then they married and moved to suburbia and both my brother and I had asthma.

I always wanted to live on a farm and used to beg them to buy one, (nothing spoiled about me )

Whatever the cause it has something to do with modern life because the cases of asthma have skyrocketed over the years.

[pnwmom]

3. No. For sure, not. The parents didn't have time or money to keep their house sterile.

There's another interesting theory about asthma and other auto-immune diseases.

And that is that our bodies were designed to be able to fight worm infestations. Since few of us have worms these days, our bodies attack themselves. . . .

But it's just another theory. And probably there are a combination of things that are causing asthma to rise.

Air pollution is another factor, and it tends to be highest in urban areas where asthma is also highest. So is cockroach infestation, and that can also lead to asthma.

It would be nice if there were one thing we could fix, and eliminate the problem of escalating asthma. But it's probably a number of factors related to modern life. That's my guess anyway, as an asthmatic myself.