Do Amish people get immunized?
Are they healthier than other Americans?
How do Amish pay hospital bills?
Do they use alternative medicine?
This week, a look at the ways Amish approach health care and medicine:
Do Amish visit doctors?
Yes. Amish do make use of conventional medical services including doctors, hospitals, clinics, opticians, dentists, and others. Amish people also frequently patronize chiropractic services.
However some Amish are more likely to rely on alternative treatments such as folk treatments, herbal and natural medicines, and alternative remedies than conventional ones, at least as a preferred first line of treatment. This choice can depend on their church, community, and family background. Read more.
Do Amish get immunized?
Some do and some do not. As with other conventional treatments, the more traditional and conservative groups are less likely to be vaccinated. Amish may refrain from vaccination due to reasons including a lack of understanding of benefits, a belief that the shots are harmful, religious conviction, and tradition (one’s parents did not vaccinate, so one does not need to either).
However, a study performed in the 1980s found a majority of Amish in one large settlement (63%) to have undergone vaccinations, though in the plainest segment of the community, only 6% had (see study reference p. 228 in An Amish Paradox).
Furthermore, a large measles outbreak in Ohio in 2014 afflicting hundreds of Amish motivated many to be vaccinated (at least 8,000 Amish underwent vaccination as a result) and spread immunization awareness across Amish society as a result. Read more on the Amish & immunization.
Are the Amish healthier than other Americans?
Studies and news reports suggest from time to time that Amish have certain health advantages, either due to lifestyle or genetics. For example, these may include a resistance to asthma and allergies, lower rates of cancer, or genetic advantages leading to better weight control.
On the other hand, some Amish suffer from extremely rare genetic diseases due to small founding communities and the practice of endogamy. Likewise, the Amish diet is also alternately praised (for fresh, natural home-grown foods) and condemned (for high use of fat and sugar in traditional cooking). A lifestyle generally more active than that of the average American no doubt contributes some health benefits to many Amish people.
Read the list in full here.
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Proper childhood exposure
When I was growing up in the “dark ages” the only vaccine we received was for Polio. It was administered at the school.
For all other viral diseases, we were exposed at gatherings and infected. We developed immunity via experiencing the disease.
Apparently having an innate immunity, regardless of exposure, I never contracted the “mumps”.
research on sudden death among Amish children. , this was part of my son Davids research at Mayo in rochester, mn, thought it very interesting
No one knew why the kids in 2 Amish families were dying suddenly. Now researchers have some answers
About 15 years ago, an Amish family in the eastern US was hit by an unexplainable tragedy — one of their children died suddenly while playing and running around. Just a few months later, the same fate befell another one of their children. Six years later, they lost another child. Two years after that, another one.
The autopsies didn’t offer any clues. The children’s hearts appeared normal. The family had what they referred to as “the curse of sudden death.” And medical examiners couldn’t figure out why.
After the deaths of the first two children, a medical examiner who conducted the autopsies got in touch with researchers at the Mayo Clinic Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory in 2004. Researchers at the lab had pioneered the concept of molecular autopsy, using genetic testing to understand the cause of death in sudden unexplained cases, and the examiner wanted to see if they could shed light on the mystery affecting the Amish community.
The team suspected that a gene called RYR2 could be the culprit — mutations of the gene can cause a cardiac arrhythmic disorder that can lead to exercise-fainting spells, seizures or even sudden cardiac death. But when they analyzed the gene to check for mutations, nothing turned up.
The case remained cold for more than a decade. As the years went by, pediatric cardiologists and genetic counselors from other parts of the country reached out to the lab about other Amish families whose children had also died sudden deaths — all looking for answers about this heartbreaking phenomenon.
Then last week, researchers at the Mayo Clinic lab reported a breakthrough, published in JAMA Cardiology. With the help of new technology that wasn’t around when they first started looking into the case, the team learned that these Amish children had all inherited the same genetic mutation from both of their parents. And out of the 23 young people who had inherited the mutation, 18 had died sudden deaths.
“As we started building out the family structure, it became apparent to us that this was most likely a recessive disorder,” David Tester, the lead scientist on the case, told CNN. “With more information and more technological advancement in terms of being able to look at genes, we were able to put this puzzle together.”
The children likely had a common ancestor
Turns out, it was RYR2 — the gene the researchers had suspected all along. But there wasn’t just one mistake in the gene. More than 300,000 base pairs in the gene had been duplicated.
“We finally figured it out that it was an autosomal recessive condition where both bad duplications came from both parents, and those children were unfortunate to get the double dose,” Michael Ackerman, director of the Windland Smith Rice Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory, told CNN.
To develop the duplication that causes sudden death, a child has to inherit a mutated gene from each parent — the chances of which are 25 percent. That four children in one family inherited the mutation and died sudden deaths is incredibly unfortunate, Ackerman said.
The Amish may be more vulnerable to recessive inherited conditions because they are descended from a small number of ancestors and tend to intermarry, Tester said. The two families studied in the report are seemingly unrelated, but because the children all had the exact same duplication in a gene inherited from both parents, Ackerman said that it’s likely that they have a common ancestor.
The discovery can help prevent sudden death
Now that researchers know about this genetic marker, there are steps that medical professionals can take to prevent sudden deaths from occurring in other Amish children, Tester said.
“Having this genetic biomarker, we can now very easily test any individual for the presence of the mutation,” he said. “Having that ability can potentially save lives.”
Knowing who has the mutation and who doesn’t is the first step to preventing tragedies like the ones experienced by the families in the study, Ackerman said. If adults who are carriers for the mutation know that they have it, they can make informed decisions about whether or not they should marry another person who is also a carrier.
There are still challenges ahead. For children who have inherited the mutation and are at risk of sudden death, the only solution to prevent it is an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), which can be extremely expensive. Ackerman said his team is working on understanding more about what causes the duplication in the gene so that a medication to prevent it can be developed, a treatment that would be much more accessible.
“We’re going fast and furious to try to get this figured out for this Amish community,” he said.
But for now, Ackerman hopes the discovery will provide some closure to the families who have lost their loved ones.
“We finally have figured out the curse of sudden death for the Amish community and they now have peace of mind as to the reason,” he said.
Was this Long QT Syndrome? I have this in my family. One of my grandsons has Maple Syrup Urine Disease and my daughter was told this was Amish Disease. Her husbands parents were from Lancaster, PA.