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submitted 3 days ago by Quilotoa@lemmy.ca to c/til@lemmy.ca
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[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 37 points 2 days ago

Survival bias

Any Amish child with serious allergies was just allowed to die

The main reason why the Amish are able to survive so many modern diseases and conditions is by just having so many children .... not all of them will survive but enough will.

[-] n3m37h@sh.itjust.works 33 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)
[-] Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I read a paper a while back that kids who are exposed early to more things (dirt, pollen etc) tend to have fewer cases of allergies later on in life. I wonder if that's partially what's going on in this case. (not the same link, but it talks about it a bit here) https://www.livescience.com/health/allergies/is-playing-in-the-dirt-good-for-kids-immune-systems

[-] droopy4096@lemmy.ca 13 points 2 days ago

Couple of wild guesses: lack of exposure to industrialized food chain, settlements outside of cities designed for "pollen storms", lack of exposure to chemicals... "stupmed"? Hardly. We all kind of know it just rarely admit that progress comes at a price.

[-] protist@mander.xyz 3 points 2 days ago

These are all potential factors, yes, but they're just ideas until there's direct evidence

[-] droopy4096@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

there is available independent research, but since it's an expensive endeavor and industrial complexes funding "their own" research to say "it's fine" (insert meme here) chances of quality research dropping into our laps are slim-to-none. So best we can do is by experimentation and observation ourselves. Several chronic conditions magically disappeared for me by paying more attention to my food origins and methods of preparation, moving away from pollution centers etc. People around me report very similar outcomes so I'm willing to trust those scarse and rare "contradictory" reports pitting industrialized lifestyle against "simpler" life.

[-] lvxferre@mander.xyz 9 points 2 days ago

I think it's a mix of what both IninewCrow and Jay said: survival bias + higher early exposure to dirt, pollen etc.

[-] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

The Amish generally do not participate, but they 100% are affected by the developed world around them and do participate to a degree. There are also different varying groups of Amish that do use some modern conveniences, even things like cars and trucks.

[-] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 days ago

Its the hats. Everything went to shit when hats and bonnets stopped being the norm... provided you ignore the many many things that were shit up to that point.

[-] deadcatbounce@reddthat.com -5 points 3 days ago

Maybe it isn't fashionable there yet.

this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2025
59 points (95.4% liked)

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