Study: Amish farm children have remarkable immunity to allergies and asthma

Farm kids have fewer allergies than other kids and Amish farm kids -- at least those raised in northern Indiana -- are even less allergic than them, according to a recent study. The scholarly work, reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, was spearheaded by Dr. Mark Holbreich, an Indianapolis doctor who noticed that the Amish children he treated almost never contracted allergies or asthma. His study set out to see if he was right.

Kerry Grens reports for Reuters that Holbreich, who had read that Swiss farming families also had a history of few instances of allergy and asthma complaints, tested Amish farm children in Northern Indiana, Swiss farm children and Swiss children who didn't live on farms. Only 5 percent of the Amish kids were diagnosed with asthma and 7 percent were determined to be predisposed to have allergies. A mere 6.8 percent of Swiss farm kids were diagnosed with asthma and 25 percent were likely to develop allergies, as determined by skin-prick test. Twenty-five percent of the non-farm kids were giving an asthma diagnosis and 44 percent were predisposed to allergies.

No definitive reason was given by the study's authors as to why the farm kids were healthier. Holbreich seemed to think drinking raw cow's milk was involved. "The going theory," writes Grens, "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."