Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
They range from annoying sniffles, watery eyes and irritating rashes to a possible meeting with the Grim Reaper. Allergies are nasty indeed! While antihistamines can relieve symptoms and epinephrine can save people who are teetering at Death’s door, preventing allergies has proven to be a challenge. However, we may get a clue from the Amish and the Hutterites, two closely related religious groups. Both groups trace their origin to Central Europe, do not differ genetically, frown on infant baptism, and share the belief that baptism should be a decision made by adults. They are mostly farmers, but while the Amish still live in the horse and buggy age, the Hutterites use modern mechanized equipment and are more accepting of technology.
There is one glaring difference between the two communities. Amish children have a low asthma rate of around 5% and a low allergy rate of 7%. Hutterite children, on the other hand, have asthma and allergy rates of 21% and 30% respectively, rates very similar to the general population. Amish children grow up on family farms, ride in horse-drawn buggies and work in barns where they are in close daily contact with animals, soil and manure. Hutterite farms are large, mechanized operations and children live in modern sanitized homes separated from the automated livestock barns. Unlike Amish children they do not milk cows daily or clean stalls regularly.
Could it be that early exposure to livestock microbes found on a farm is protective against allergies? Maybe. As reported in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers collected dust samples from the living area in Amish and Hutterite homes. The microbial diversity in the Amish dust was 7 times more diverse, and the level of endotoxins was also about 7 times greater. Endotoxins are complex molecules that make up the outer membrane of bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella and are continuously shed by living bacteria and are released in high doses when the bacteria die.
It seems that early exposure to microbes and endotoxins trains the immune system not to react to foreign substances. Mice sensitized to ovalbumin will show airway constriction characteristic of asthma when subsequently exposed to aerosolized ovalbumin. However, when previously exposed to Amish dust extracts, the mice in the study did not show the asthmatic symptoms. Hutterite dust did not provide protection. This goes hand-in-hand with the so-called “hygiene hypothesis.” The tenet here is that lack of early exposure to parasites and microbes increases susceptibility to allergic diseases by preventing the developing immune system from learning how to distinguish between harmless and harmful substances.
What do we do with this information? We are not going to start rolling our children in animal manure, but we can encourage playing outdoors in soil. Pet exposure may also help as can avoiding the excessive use of disinfectants. And who knows? Maybe in the future we will be spreading Amish housedust in children’s bedrooms. Now there’s a business opportunity.
They range from annoying sniffles, watery eyes and irritating rashes to a possible meeting with the Grim Reaper. Allergies are nasty indeed! While antihistamines can relieve symptoms and epinephrine can save people who are teetering at Death’s door, preventing allergies has proven to be a challenge. However, we may get a clue from the Amish and the Hutterites, two closely related religious groups. Both groups trace their origin to Central Europe, do not differ genetically, frown on infant baptism, and share the belief that baptism should be a decision made by adults. They are mostly farmers, but while the Amish still live in the horse and buggy age, the Hutterites use modern mechanized equipment and are more accepting of technology.
There is one glaring difference between the two communities. Amish children have a low asthma rate of around 5% and a low allergy rate of 7%. Hutterite children, on the other hand, have asthma and allergy rates of 21% and 30% respectively, rates very similar to the general population. Amish children grow up on family farms, ride in horse-drawn buggies and work in barns where they are in close daily contact with animals, soil and manure. Hutterite farms are large, mechanized operations and children live in modern sanitized homes separated from the automated livestock barns. Unlike Amish children they do not milk cows daily or clean stalls regularly.
Could it be that early exposure to livestock microbes found on a farm is protective against allergies? Maybe. As reported in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers collected dust samples from the living area in Amish and Hutterite homes. The microbial diversity in the Amish dust was 7 times more diverse, and the level of endotoxins was also about 7 times greater. Endotoxins are complex molecules that make up the outer membrane of bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella and are continuously shed by living bacteria and are released in high doses when the bacteria die.
It seems that early exposure to microbes and endotoxins trains the immune system not to react to foreign substances. Mice sensitized to ovalbumin will show airway constriction characteristic of asthma when subsequently exposed to aerosolized ovalbumin. However, when previously exposed to Amish dust extracts, the mice in the study did not show the asthmatic symptoms. Hutterite dust did not provide protection. This goes hand-in-hand with the so-called “hygiene hypothesis.” The tenet here is that lack of early exposure to parasites and microbes increases susceptibility to allergic diseases by preventing the developing immune system from learning how to distinguish between harmless and harmful substances.
What do we do with this information? We are not going to start rolling our children in animal manure, but we can encourage playing outdoors in soil. Pet exposure may also help as can avoiding the excessive use of disinfectants. And who knows? Maybe in the future we will be spreading Amish housedust in children’s bedrooms. Now there’s a business opportunity.
