Rural Children Experience Fewer Allergies

Individuals who grow up in farms and livestock areas are less likely to suffer from allergies and respiratory diseases such as asthma. Recent research published in the prestigious journal Science indicates that bacteria found in animal waste, particularly cow dung, helps make the structure of respiratory cells in the lungs resistant to allergies. This is not the first time medical biologists have pointed out the importance of microbes in the growth environment of children. There is a theory that suggests the more children are exposed to microbes in their childhood, the greater their physical resistance to diseases in adulthood. Previous studies in Switzerland on children raised in farms showed that they suffer from allergies 20% less than their urban counterparts. Research on Amish children, who lead agricultural lives in some eastern U.S. states, also indicated lower allergy rates. Researchers state that when our body first inhales an allergen, it is not the immune system that has the first encounter, but the respiratory cells in the lungs. Accordingly, they injected an allergen—from farm dust—into the lungs of laboratory mice for the first time. These mice had become resistant to allergies in adulthood. The researchers discovered that these mice produced a protein called A20, which contributed to this resistance. However, the scientists did not stop at laboratory mice; they next studied two thousand children who grew up on farms. They found that children suffering from allergies, despite living in these farms, had resistance to the A20 protein and did not actually produce it. Although this research does not answer all questions related to the formation of allergies in some individuals, researchers consider it a significant step toward understanding the factors and treatment of allergies, especially in children.