Fascinating studies on asthma

[merhawk]

Amish's low asthma rates could be due to exposure to cow germs, study suggests
The Amish may be farming the cure for asthma in barnyard animals

Fascinating study. I hope that they can figure out the exact triggers and help with asthmatic cases.

Comments

[canyonwalker.livejournal.com]

I saw those articles in this week's news and read them with interest. I have allergies to several airborne irritants and I suffer occasional asthma, usually related to those allergies.

The idea has been floating around for many years now that overly clean environments cause children not to develop systemic tolerance of environmental irritants that children growing up in dirtier environments are exposed to early on. This study would seem to support that hypothesis.

I am concerned, though, that the study focused on two very insular communities. There is not going to be a lot of genetic diversity amongst them. It could be that one group coincidentally has one gene in its small pool that the other group does not. It will take broader studies to rule out the chance of that coincidence.