Sunday, July 27, 2025

Amish Kids Almost Never Get Allergies

and Scientists Finally Know Why How Amish barns could hold the secret to preventing the onset of allergies.

Posted by Corky at 08:33 PM | 42 COMMENTS | permalink

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Allergies seem nearly impossible to avoid -- unless you're Amish In fact, an Amish community in northern Indiana is considered one of the least-allergic populations ever measured in the developed world. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/ ...

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-- Liz Szabo (@lizszabo.bsky.social) Jul 21, 2025 at 10:51 AM

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"Moreover, "generally, across the country, about 8 to 10 percent of kids have asthma. In the Amish kids, it's probably 1 to 2 percent.

A few of them do have allergies, but at much, much lower rates compared to the general population," Carole Ober, an expert on human genetics from the University of Chicago, told The Washington Post.

These numbers are so incredible that scientists are now digging deep into Amish barns and homes to understand how these children are being protected. They believe that their findings could lead to treatments that prevent allergies altogether."

"Ahh-chooo!"

#1 | Posted by Corky at 2025-07-27 05:05 PM

It's the foods we consume.

The typical diet of the average American is full of forever chemicals, preservatives, sugar and microplastics.

Our bodies aren't meant to process these things and the results are apparent.

It's effecting hormone balance in the brain and being passed on from mother to child.

But at least now our food comes in neon colors and can last forever.

Huzzah!!!

#2 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-07-27 05:15 PM

This is difficult to prove. They certainly don't get diagnosed with such things because they never go to the doctor.

#3 | Posted by eberly at 2025-07-27 05:18 PM

Maybe it's the lack of vaccinations?

Is that where this was supposed to go?

#4 | Posted by eberly at 2025-07-27 05:20 PM

Yea. I'm pretty sure it's an anti vax thread.

Ever since Covid, the anti vax movement in America has become a republican movement.

#5 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-07-27 05:22 PM

Meaning. It use to be some fringe groups in both parties.

But now it's RFKJr and the Republican Party.

#6 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-07-27 05:23 PM

I live between the two oldest settlements of Amish in Kansas. You rarely see them going out like the English (none Amish) people. They usually go to Aldi's and Walmart if you do. Of course the Barn thing does help.

#7 | Posted by LauraMohr at 2025-07-27 05:29 PM

- forever chemicals, preservatives, sugar and microplastics.

aka, "What's for dinner?".

Go Low processed Foods

www.healthline.com

Brown rice, black beans, and guacamole; my go to meal that a person could actually live on eating nothing else.... which I ain't doin', but still good to know for when ICE mistakes me for Geraldo Rivera.

#8 | Posted by Corky at 2025-07-27 05:32 PM

It's so much easier to buy fast food or open a bag of frozen whatnots and throw it in the air fryer for 10 minutes than to cook a meal.

Our lives have become all about convenience.

#9 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-07-27 05:38 PM

#7

I saw so many Amish when I was traveling year before last around the southeastern part of the Great Lakes.

One picture that still sticks with me is the Amish farmer in full overalls and hat standing like a charioteer with a whip and 4 horses on a plow that was really like a big piece of decking on top of the claw thingies.

He was right up near the small backroad which curved right by his farm... but there was no place to stop for a pic. It was so cool thought he looked like Amish Ben Hur.

#10 | Posted by Corky at 2025-07-27 05:39 PM

When I was in 8th grade, junior high school, the school took us on a trip out to the east coast to visit historic monuments in DC and Pennsylvania.

We stopped in an Amish town and ate there.

I remember it being the best food we had on the trip.

#11 | Posted by ClownShack at 2025-07-27 05:45 PM

I have no known allergies.

I sometimes have wondered if the reason for that is that my parents, when I was a kid, allowed me to spend a lot of time in the local woods, digging in the dirt with my bare hands, etc.

#12 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-27 06:08 PM

The hygiene hypothesis.

Work in this has been ongoing for years.

The flip side is that we tend to live in overly clean homes/environments.

#13 | Posted by jpw at 2025-07-27 06:08 PM

@#13 ... The hygiene hypothesis. ...

Yup. I had heard of that, which led to my wondering about my visits to the woods back in the day.

Good to see research seems to be continuing on this matter.


#14 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-27 06:55 PM

@#13 ... The flip side is that we tend to live in overly clean homes/environments. ...

And, fwiw, I do not remove my shoes when I enter my house.

I recently read an article that seemed all but hysterical about all the germs that one tracks into your house if you do not remove your shoes when you enter. Especially if you were crazy enough to walk on your lawn before entering your house.


#15 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-27 06:58 PM

I've chewed my fingernails all my life. Had asthma early on, grew out of it before 1st grade. Not allergic to anything I know of. Strong immune system. Rarely get sick.

#16 | Posted by et_al at 2025-07-27 08:11 PM

Modern life is awash in chemical toxins.

Amish don't live a very modern life.

#17 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-07-27 08:13 PM

@#17 ... Modern life is awash in chemical toxins.

Amish don't live a very modern life. ...

Yup.

There is that aspect also.

But not likely applicable to me, as growing up in NYC, you may say that I was also awash in chemical toxins.

That aside, given my experience, my main hope at this point is that the research continues.

imo, there may be something here. Or not.

#18 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-27 09:16 PM

You're a sample size of one, so, not something you can draw any conclusions from.

#19 | Posted by snoofy at 2025-07-27 09:20 PM

@#19 ... You're a sample size of one, so, not something you can draw any conclusions from. ...

I agree.

Which is why I want this research to continue.

#20 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-27 09:41 PM

The real question is how do they survive drinking non-homogenized and non-pasteurized milk?

And their butter.. I buy it by the block, it must have some kind of.. magic?

#21 | Posted by redlightrobot at 2025-07-27 11:14 PM

Inbreeding... as part of the "natural selection" process.

The matchmaking goes something like this.

Young Eli... It's time for you to marry your cousin Sarah. She's a fine woman... never sick. She needs a good, strong man like you.

#22 | Posted by RightisTrite at 2025-07-28 04:11 AM

Or how about this... they expect to work all day and eat only at mealtimes.

#23 | Posted by RightisTrite at 2025-07-28 04:14 AM

Well, the "safe" answer is: a combination of factors. (Box up my Nobel gong; I'll grab it on the way out.). Although the inbreeding angle sure seems, on the face of it, to merit looking into in a culture where family trees probably resemble Hopi kinship charts.

#24 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2025-07-28 03:44 PM

GMOs, Roundup, PFAs, seed oils, lack of animal fats, and most of all - the drugs prescribed in this country. Western medicine is bassackwards, we treat symptoms, not causes. For Trauma, cardiac and cancer we're the best putting people back together but everything else is voodoo pills.

#25 | Posted by lfthndthrds at 2025-07-28 04:17 PM

LOL the article is literally telling us the mechanism, and everyone is still pontificating on food, drugs, lifestyle...

#26 | Posted by jpw at 2025-07-28 04:25 PM

Someone needs another booster shot.

#27 | Posted by lfthndthrds at 2025-07-28 04:36 PM

Someone needs to STFU because they're a stupid f(*& who constantly gets everything wrong.

#28 | Posted by jpw at 2025-07-28 04:41 PM

Duhhhhh BoOstErAZA!!

F*&^in' idiot.

#29 | Posted by jpw at 2025-07-28 04:46 PM

#26

This is true, but people are generalizing a bit now about other aspects of their life, which they live closer to physical reality than most modern people now do; they don't live online, on tv, on drugs (or sex and rock and roll!) or at the Mall or in a bar somewhere.

I doubt there's a lot of Amish who think what they feel is more important than what their senses tell them.

#30 | Posted by Corky at 2025-07-28 04:46 PM

Someone needs another booster shot.

#27 | Posted by lfthndthrds

Why? What's wrong with trump's vaccine?

#31 | Posted by SpeakSoftly at 2025-07-28 04:54 PM

What goes "clop clop clop bang bang clop clop clop?"

An Amish drive-by shooting

#32 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2025-07-29 01:41 PM

I wonder if the funny clothes play a role.

#33 | Posted by BellRinger at 2025-07-29 02:31 PM

I wonder if the funny clothes play a role.

Posted by BellRinger at 2025-07-29 02:31 PM | Reply

Jakob Ammen the namesake of the Amish sect was a tailor and had strict rules on the clothing of the followers. It's carried over hundreds of years to today. That's why for the "funny" looking clothing.

#34 | Posted by LauraMohr at 2025-07-29 02:45 PM

#33

That wasn't a HOF level troll. Be better.

#35 | Posted by lee_the_agent at 2025-07-29 02:51 PM

Jakob Ammen the namesake of the Amish sect was a tailor and had strict rules on the clothing of the followers. It's carried over hundreds of years to today. That's why for the "funny" looking clothing.

#34 | POSTED BY LAURAMOHR AT 2025-07-29 02:45 PM | FLAG: want to see some funny looking clothing -just look at what people were wearing in the mid 60s on through the 70s, and 80s, etc. : )

#36 | Posted by MSgt at 2025-07-29 03:56 PM

Gotta be interesting for the Amish to observe us all becoming digital mush-brains. In the Amtrak observation car, that seemed to be the topic of choice that strangers would bring up when chatting with the Amish

#37 | Posted by hamburglar at 2025-07-29 06:01 PM

If you were Amish and had asthma, you died rather than passing on your genes.

Without those genes in the gene pool, less people had asthma.

And because their gene pool tends to be small and look more like a Christmas wreath than a fully grown tree, genes that led to higher levels of asthma have been kept out...while other genetic defects have intesified.

This is well documented.

#38 | Posted by Sycophant at 2025-07-29 07:01 PM

From the article

"The Hutterite kids and pregnant moms don't go into the animal barns. Kids aren't really exposed to the animal barns until they're like 12 or so... The Amish kids are in and out of the cow barns all day long from an early age," Ober said.

When scientists analyzed dust samples from Amish and Hutterite homes, they discovered that Amish house dust had nearly seven times more microbes. To test whether this made a difference, they exposed mice to each type of dust. Mice that inhaled Amish dust showed much less inflammation in their airways when exposed to allergens.

Whereas mice exposed to Hutterite dust didn't get that benefit. This strongly suggested that early, regular exposure to certain farm microbes trained the immune system of Amish kids to react calmly instead of aggressively to substances like pollen or food. This phenomenon is called the farm effect.

...by studying the microbes responsible for the farm effect, scientists believe it is possible to replicate the protective effect of the Amish environment. For instance, they could develop proactive solutions, such as probiotics, nasal sprays, or even dust-derived treatments that train a child's immune system in the early years of life.

#39 | Posted by Idependant97 at 2025-07-29 07:59 PM

Sorry, I just can't resist...

Amish Paradise by Weird Al

youtu.be

#40 | Posted by Idependant97 at 2025-07-29 08:10 PM

Talking about the Amish. Jeff should get this www.lehmans.com for all the water he carries for Trump.

#41 | Posted by LauraMohr at 2025-07-29 08:15 PM

@#39

Yeah, that's why I want this research to continue.

#42 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-07-29 08:21 PM

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