The Community That Doesn’t Suffer Allergies: The Secret of the Amish
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Triggering such as pollen, pet feather and peanuts now make the daily life of millions of people. While allergies become the certain problem of the modern age, these disorders, which were not so common in the past, are the common problem of many people today. But surprisingly, there is a community in the world that does not show any allergy symptoms. Scientists are trying to solve the secrets of this mysterious group. Genetics, lifestyle or environmental factors? Answers can open new doors in the fight against allergy.
Even though the incidence of allergic diseases increases in industrial and developing countries, Amish continue to remain remarkably and surprisingly resistant.
Only 7 percent of Amish children in the skin prick test, one or more common allergen reacts positively, while more than half of the general US population reacts positively to this test. the children of other conventional farmer families are more allergic than Amish children, although their allergic disease rates are lower than children without farmers.Speaking to Washington Post,Carole Ober,Head of the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Chicago,stated that,in general,approximately 8 to 10 percent of children throughout the country have asthma,this ratio is probably between 1 and 2 percent in Amish children. She said that there are also allergies, but it was much lower than the general population.Ober and other researchers are now trying to explore what makes Amish and other traditional farmer communities unique, hoping to develop a protective treatment that can be given to young children.
For example,a probiotic or essential oil containing microbes on the farm soil and the molecules produced by them can be adapted to prevent allergic diseases of children’s immune systems.
Donata vercelli, a professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of Arizona, said, “Some agricultural practices, especially very traditional ones, have an remarkable protective effect in the sense that…
Amishler: Geleneklerine Bağlı Bir Yaşam Tarzı
Amishler, geleneksel tarım yapan çiftliklerinde yaşayan ve genelde çiftlik işleri ile uğraşan bir topluluktur.Teknoloji karşıtı oldukları için,elektrik,otomobil,telefon gibi modern araçları kullanmazlar. Ulaşımda at arabası tercih ederler. Tarım,hayvancılık ve marangozluk gibi geleneksel mesleklerle geçimlerini sağlarlar. Yaptıkları işlerin tamamı doğaya bağlı zanaatlardır.
Kendi toplulukları içinde üretim ve paylaşım esasına dayalı bir sistem kurmuşlardır. 2024 itibariyle, yaklaşık 395.000 Amish Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nde yaşıyor ve çoğunlukla Pennsylvania, Ohio ve Indiana’da yoğunlaşıyor.
The “farm Effect”: Why Amish Children Are Less Prone to Allergies
Achan wondered if non-hygienic contact with his older brothers had served as a protection against allergies. Subsequent findings supported the hygiene hypothesis. For example, children who grow up with more pets at home were less likely to develop asthma, straw fever or eczema, but perhaps more impactful: growing up on a farm proved even more useful.
More than 150 years ago, straw fever was known as the “Aristocratic Disease” and was almost fully limited to the upper classes of society. Farmers seemed relatively immune. This “Farm Effect” was confirmed by research on agricultural populations around the world, including the United States, Europe, Asia and South America, but the most prominent influence was seen among the Amish.
In a study conducted by Ober, Vercelli and colleagues on 60 school children, Amish children were found to have four times lower allergy rates than the Hutterites, another US agricultural community with similar genetic origin and lifestyle.
The development of antibodies against allergens was 6 times higher in Hutterite children.Researchers first excluded a genetic reason; analysis showed that the ancestors of Amish and Hutterite children were quite similar.
Instead, the main difference between these two populations seemed to be the duration of young children’s exposure to farm animals or stables. Ober explained, “Hutterite children and pregnant women do not enter the animal stables. Children do not stop in the animal stables until they are 12 years old when they start learning to work on the farm. Amish children enter and exit into cow stables all day long.”
Analyzing dust samples from the hutterite community revealed that the microbial load in Amish houses was almost 7 times higher. Subsequent experiments showed that asthma-like symptoms in mice breathing Amish soil were substantially reduced when exposed to allergens. Mice breathing Hutterite dust did not see the same benefit.
Now,Ober and Vercelli have begun to identify protective agents that prevent allergic asthma from amish soil.
In 2023, when…
The Gut Microbiome of Rural Infants: A 2021 Study
In 2021, Järvinen-Seppo and colleagues compared the gut microbiomes of 65 infants living in a rural Old Order Mennonite community in upstate New York with those of 39 urban/suburban infants. The study found significant differences between the two groups.Like the Amish, Old Order mennonites maintain a traditional agricultural lifestyle and a close connection to the land.