The researchers were surprised to find that the children in the poorer, dirtier, and less developed East were less likely to suffer from asthma and allergies than the children in the more affluent and sanitary West. More recently, studies have found that Amish children have remarkably low rates of asthma and allergies. The reason? Likely what European scientists call the “farm effect.” Breathing in the microbes found in manure from cattle and other farm animals every day is beneficial to the immune system and could explain why only 7.2 percent of the Amish children in one study had an
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