Originally published July 27 2014
Nature's vaccines: Growing up on livestock farms halves children's risk of inflammatory bowel diseases
by PF Louis
(NaturalNews) A recent synchronicity of studies throughout northwest Europe involving researchers in Germany, Sweden and Denmark affirm that there's something healthy about growing up on a farm with livestock -- not just feeling good while on the farm but growing up with stronger disease-resisting immune systems than most who don't grow up on small dairy farms.
Resistance to allergies, asthma and pneumonia were the focuses of the German and Swedish studies. But the Danes monitored cases of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease among farm-raised children compared to urban dwellers.
Researchers at Aarhus University in Aarhus, Denmark, noted that urban dwellers were twice as likely to incur inflammatory bowel diseases as people who grew up on a farm with some animals.
Aarhus University associate professor and study author Vivi Schlunssen exclaimed, "It is extremely exciting that we can now see that not only allergic diseases, but also more classic inflammatory diseases appear to depend on the environment we are exposed to early in our lives.
"We know that development of the immune system is finalized in the first years of our lives, and we suspect that environmental influences may have a crucial effect on this development. The place where you grow up may therefore influence your risk of developing an inflammatory bowel disease later in life."
Does environmentally enhanced immunity continue to the next generation?
One of the German studies using rats confined to breathing air with dairy farm microbes determined that their developed stronger immunity was passed on to the next generation. That group touched on some genetic speculations that should be considered for future studies, which all the other researchers are also curious about studying.
Schlunssen concluded her epidemiological survey with the stated intent of expanding into following the children of those who grew up on farms surveyed in her most recent study.
Her goal is to determine the reality and extent of immunity transference of immunity from farm-raised children to their offspring as studied in the German rat study.
So far, they've all come to realize that enhanced immunity from exposure to a wide variety of microbes since birth is nature's vaccine to a wide variety of bronchial and food allergies while somehow minimizing autoimmune inflammatory diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
But is it just the microbial variety and content in the air and dirt on farms with livestock?
Obviously, most of the children studied were raised on small farms that are not monoculture monoliths requiring tons of toxic pesticides and herbicides. Those kids would be quite sickly from the contaminated ground or well water and airborne toxins.
A recent University of California, Davis, study surveyed families with autistic spectrum disorders or learning disabilities. They discovered that one-third were living in farming areas within a mile of heavily sprayed fields when the mothers gave birth to the mentally challenged or autistic children.
This is a an environmental factor that separates Big Ag farms from family farms, which are common in the rural EU nations used by researchers. They are also common in Midwest Amish country, where kids are usually breastfed and then raised on raw milk from cows or goats.
In the EU, one could add sheep's milk as well as milk and cheese from cows and goats. Also consider the proclivity toward food self-sufficiency with some edible crops, baking bread at home and making their own fermented foods.
So let's add all the factors present growing up on a small family dairy farm that could actually strengthen one's immune system during one's formative years:
- Contact with higher amounts and varieties of natural microbes in the air and dirt;
- Less or no added environmental toxins from agrochemicals;
- Raw milk and cheese throughout childhood; and
- Fresh untainted food from one's own fields or neighboring farms with homemade baked goods and fermented foods.
All these factors combined with less vehicular traffic fumes makes enhanced immunity a self-evident result of growing up on a small farm with some livestock.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.sciencedaily.com
http://www.naturalnews.com
http://www.naturalnews.com
http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
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