A lot of people in this area of the county live or work on farms, and in a study recently published in the scientific journal "Nature Medicine," researchers examined the link between the indoor dust and germs found in farmhouses and children's risk for asthma. The researchers found that Finnish children who grew up in farmhouses "with rich home dust microbiota" were less likely to develop asthma compared to those living elsewhere. The scientists extended their study by looking at German children who grew up in non-farm houses that had an indoor climate similar to the Finnish farm homes; they, too, had a lower risk of asthma.
The authors conclude, "Asthma prevalence has increased in epidemic proportions with urbanization, but growing up on traditional farms offers protection even today. The asthma-protective effect of farms appears to be associated with rich home dust microbiota, which could be used to model a health-promoting indoor microbiome. . . . The indoor dust microbiota composition appears to be a definable, reproducible predictor of asthma risk and a potential modifiable target for asthma prevention."
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