It's not that bad living in a 19th-century life in the midst of 21st-century technology. For all we know, this is the safest way of living. New research suggests that Amish people have at least one distinct advantage over the rest of the population -- lower rates of asthma.

Amish children were found to have extremely low levels of asthma and allergic reactions. According to the senior author Anne Sperling, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, their kids were pretty much protected from asthma and allergies.

These children were compared to the children from the Hutterites community. Hutterites are similar to the Amish in many ways, except the Hutterites use mechanical farming equipments. According to the study, Amish asthma rate is 5 percent while Hutterite children's asthma rate is 21 percent.

Asthma is a chronic airway disease that makes it difficult to breathe. According to the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, its exact cause is not yet known, but genetics and environmental exposure are thought to play a role.

The Amish community in the study settled in northern Indiana while the Hutterlies in South Dakota. Both groups tend to marry and stay within their own communities.

According to study, both groups also share similar lifestyle factors:

Low rates of childhood obesity
Large family size
Long duration of breast-feeding
High-rates of childhood vaccination
Little exposure to tobacco smoke or air pollution
No indoor pets
Diets rich in fat, salt and raw milk

But Amish practice traditional diary farming, live on single-family farms and use horses for fieldwork and transportation. The Hutterites live on industrialized communal farms.

Based on the gathered blood samples from the children, researchers found that the Amish children had asthma rates that were four to six times lower than those of the Hutterites kids.

Researchers also collected dust samples from Amish homes which were profoundly different that those of the Hutterites. They gave the components of the dust to mice. As a result, Amish dust protected the mice from developing allergic asthma, but the dust from Hutterite home did not.

This result supports the so-called "hygiene hypothesis" which many experts believe that the "immune system may not be stimulated enough by the typical Western lifestyle."

According to Sperling, the findings might spur development of a treatment for asthma and allergies using some of what's found in the Amish dust. But any such drug would be a long way off.

The study was published online August 3 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Source: U.S. News Donald Reese Photography