Traditional Farming and Asthma
September 22, 2016
A FASCINATING study suggests that Amish children have a lower incidence of asthma and other allergic reactions because they are exposed to bacteria in soil that has never been worked with industrial machinery. Healthy dirt may be beneficial in unexpected ways.
— Comments —
A reader writes:
It seems vaccination also plays a role in asthma:
In the 1997 Christchurch Health and Development Study, “The 23 children who received no diphtheria/pertussis/tetanus (DPT) and polio immunizations had no recorded asthma episodes or consultations for asthma or other allergic illness before age 10 years; in the immunized children, 23.1% had asthma episodes, 22.5% asthma consultations, and 30.0% consultations for other allergic illness. Similar differences were observed at ages 5 and 16 years.”
Lack of vaccination may be helping the Amish avoid asthma. Recently I have read a claim that the Amish have their children vaccinated, but I wonder if that claim depends on which Amish community is being studied. In the below comment, this Amish mother said they do not vaccinate.
Posted by: Julie R. | February 05, 2008 at 01:06 PM:
My autistic son was learning to jump with his OT. Afterward, he began with a horrible limp. Panicking, I went to the emergency room. After we had his hip and leg x-rayed, the doctor came in and said, “Kids do not injure their hips. Why don’t you tell me what really happened to your child.” I simply asked, “Is anything broken or not.” He said, “No”. I took my son by the hand and left. We asked the pediatrician to check him, and he explained it was a simple muscle pull. Give him Tylenol. (This was the same doctor who vaccinated him, then told me that the vaccines didn’t have anything to do with his instant alien poops and loss of [speech].) We then heard of a Chiropractor who was very good with children, and also charged about 1/100 of what mainstream medicine costs. We took him there. In 5 minutes of examination, she said his hip joint was jammed. This can happen when you, say, miss a step and come down on the joint too hard. She eased it out, and my son walked out-no limp! (She also is very much against vaccines. Both her children are not vaccinated, were born at home, and have never seen the doctor for an illness. They also happen to have antibodies to childhood diseases through the natural exposure process.) During a follow-up visit, as I was waiting in the waiting area, an Amish woman sat with her very well behaved 4 boys-obviously not vaccine poisoned children. She looked up and said, “He looks like a little hot-rod”, as my son destroyed the waiting area. I explained, “Oh, he has autism.” She politely said, “What is autism? I have never heard of that word. I see almost all the childhood illnesses, because we don’t vaccinate.” Yeah, she would not, of course, know what autism was. I asked if Amish children die from not being vaccinated. She told me no, we give them chicken soup and bed rest, and they are back to school in no time at all. She told me there was just a whooping cough outbreak, but no children were severely ill or hospitalized, not even their infants. Hmmmm. Chicken soup seems to be the best food for thought here.
