Amish children display excessively low allergies. When more than one in two American children reacts to common allergens, only 7% of children in the Christian community of Germanic origin show a positive reaction to one or more allergens. Amish, who live in a remote manner in northern Indiana in the United States, are considered one of the least allergic communities in the world.
Even asthma, which affects about 10% of children in the United States or in France, seems almost absent among the Amish. An article from the Washington Post returns to this strange faculty that has fascinated researchers for years. One might think that it is simply a question of genetics, but a study carried out with agricultural communities with similar origins, Hutteritis, shows that the latter do not benefit from the same level of protection.
One of the characteristics of the ethnoreligious group, miraculously free from hay fever, is its farmer’s lifestyle, in which children are plunged from early childhood. The youngest spend their day in contact with animals, livestock, straw, dust, and therefore with a good packet of microbes. It is this constant “microbial bath” that could shape their immune system from an early age.
A laboratory experience by Carole Ober, geneticist and professor at the University of Chicago, and Donata Vercelli, a researcher in molecular medicine at the University of Arizona, revealed a surprising result. The dust of the Amish houses would protect the respiratory tract from the mice exposed to allergens, a non -existent effect with the dust of Hutteritis houses, however also rural.
A friend who wants you good
This protection confirms what researchers have long been supposed: an environment rich in microbes, especially in the first years of life, considerably reduces the risk of allergies.
By analyzing in more detail of the dust from the Amish stables, scientists were able to identify the exact substances behind this protection against asthma and allergies. In 2023, the results highlighted proteins capable of transporting microbial molecules to the respiratory tract, where they prevent inflammatory reactions. In other words, Amish live in the midst of natural protective agents that regulate immune responses.
Allergic diseases tend to increase in developed countries and affect the quality of life of millions of people. In France, it is 20 to 25% of the general population suffering from allergy, according to a report by the French Health Safety Agency (AFSSET). The stake is therefore size. If scientists manage to isolate the active elements responsible for this protective effect, generalized prevention could finally become reality.
In the meantime, it is obviously not worth installing a stable in your living room to protect your child. Only the real good dust of the Granges Amish can revolutionize the fight against allergies. The solution to our modern ills is sometimes found in our oldest habits.
