Debunking Five Common Amish Health Claims
I chipped in ideas for a recent USA Today article challenging some of the wilder health claims you see out there about the Amish. This is the social media post they were responding to:
I’m not sure why this particular post was chosen, as these sorts of claims are pretty commonplace. I imagine because it manages to put so many of the more common misbeliefs into one post.
5 Incorrect Claims on the Amish & Health
In summary, the person’s claims are:
- The Amish live longer than the rest of us
- They only drink raw milk
- They don’t get vaccinated
- There have never been outbreaks of pathogens in Amish communities
- They have no cases of autism
More on why these are incorrect below.
How do “the Amish” really do things?
In response to the USA Today reporter I wrote a pretty long email answering questions. Here’s one bit that made it into the article, which covers a couple of the key points to keep in mind:
“When people talk about what ‘the Amish’ do to achieve health, they tend to apply certain positive-seeming traits across ‘the Amish’ as a whole,” Erik Wesner, the author of multiple books on Amish communities and operator of the website Amish America, told USA TODAY. “This is how ‘the Amish’ do things.’
But with close to 700 different communities, there is a lot of variety within Amish society. They also tend to ignore any negatives within the Amish.”
If you’ve visited more than one or two Amish communities, you’ve probably observed this firsthand. There’s usually not a single “Amish way” to do things.
And not all things about health practices among Amish people are necessarily positive, just because some Amish people somewhere do them.
“When people talk about what ‘the Amish’ do to achieve health, they tend to apply certain positive-seeming traits across ‘the Amish’ as a whole,” Erik Wesner told USA TODAY… “They also tend to ignore any negatives within the Amish.” https://t.co/LafU6ecLyu
— Amish America (@amishamerica) December 12, 2024
The USA Today article does a good job going through each of the five claims above and demonstrating evidence to the contrary for each claim.
Here are my brief responses to each, I recommend checking out the full article by Nate Trela for more, and further links to contrary evidence to each of these claims.
1. Amish people live longer than the rest of us?
Back in 2017, a gene mutation study found that Amish in one Indiana community showed significantly greater longevity – about 10 years longer than others in their community without the mutation.
This probably has much to do with this idea being popular – the story went viral and the idea that “Amish live longer” spread far and wide.
But this was just one community. A 2001 study, for example, showed a 71-year mean lifespan for Amish in Lancaster County. But as far as I know, there haven’t been really comprehensive studies on Amish lifespan, taking in many groups.
2. They only drink raw milk?
Dairy farming remains common among Amish. That said, most Amish people are not dairy farmers. They have many other occupations, including furniture making and other businesses.
So not all Amish have their own easy source of raw milk. Some will get it from neighboring farms. And the Amish as a whole do tend to drink a lot of raw milk.
But some Amish people out of necessity or convenience would also drink store bought, pasteurized milk. It’s hazardous to make any claims which say “the Amish only” do this or that.
3. They don’t get vaccinated?
There is generally no formal prohibition on things like vaccines. Similar to something like voting, it’s a matter of personal choice.
But Amish culture has tendencies, and they tend to avoid vaccines. Based on studies, there are reasons for this, including not understanding the benefits, or safety, of common vaccines, and (in some, not all, cases) wanting to rely on God’s protection.
However, Amish people who generally decline vaccines can be moved to change their mind. A good example of this was a measles outbreak that happened in Ohio about 10 years ago.
Thousands of Amish people decided to take the measles vaccine in the immediate response to that public health situation.
In another community, hundreds of Amish got vaccinated against Hepatitis A after it showed up in one Amish boy.
4. There have never been outbreaks of pathogens in Amish communities?
This is a nonsense claim. Measles, whooping cough, COVID, even polio on two separate occasions have all happened.
These sorts of claims attempt to describe the Amish as having some special protection from ailments which affect all of us.
There is an element of wishful thinking in them – that we have found a group of people who have “figured out” health. And if we only copy what we imagine they do, we can have perfect health too.
We want to believe there is a model community that we can copy-paste health practices from. But it’s not so cut-and-dry.
At the same time, that’s not to say that Amish people don’t have healthy practices that we can also adopt.
5. They have no cases of autism?
They didn’t ask me about this one, so I’ll just quote from their article:
The autism claim is also demonstrably false, as USA TODAY previously reported on the existence of autism in Amish communities. The condition was documented in 2009 and 2010 studies.
Again, check out their full article for more.
I’ll end with two more excerpts of my thoughts on the Amish and health:
“Amish ways” can vary…and they’re not all healthy
Amish practices and habits can vary. “The Amish” do many general things in common, pretty much across the board (eg, wearing plain clothing, horse-and-buggy travel, restricting tech to various degrees, religious beliefs and church practices).
But the Amish come from different backgrounds and there are many different groups within their 400,000+ population. Some are more progressive and open to change and modernity, others more conservative.</div>
Some Amish use tobacco regularly and consume alcohol. Some Amish are overweight or even obese, and consume large amounts of sugar and processed foods.
You may be aware of examples of tobacco and alcohol usage in Amish communities. And Amish people also eat “unhealthy” foods as well.
“I believe ‘the Amish’ do things this way…so it must be good?”
I think any time you hold up a group’s practices as being universally wise and appropriate, you run into potential risks.
For example, most of us don’t live Amish-style lifestyles. If each day I eat a typical Amish farmer’s diet, but then fail to burn calories like he does, I will eventually develop weight problems and other health issues.
Also, while Amish (to varying degrees) do make use of conventional doctors and other types of modern medical care, unconventional remedies are also popular in Amish circles.
If you ask my opinion, I do believe at least some unconventional remedies can have value. And many Amish families depend on them – for minor ailments, and even for things that would send most of us to the doctor or hospital.
But sole reliance on what we believe are “Amish ways” can lead to potentially more effective treatments being ignored – because “the Amish” do it this way, and so it must be good.
Each person should make their own health decisions. But you can potentially end up in a bad place if you put blind faith in what you believe are one group’s set of practices.
Especially if you base your assumptions on incorrect beliefs, or create a blanket belief based on limited examples.
What do you think?
Been there
We lived in the middle of a large 100 plus Old Order Amish settlement in Missouri in the 1980s. They are fundamental people when it comes to health. There was always another Englishman stopping by to promote the unsubstantiated claims of a health product. The joke among the Amish then was this. Many Amish thought that the farther away they had to travel. The better the doctor.
Amish Ways
During a time when I did considerable business business with the Amish, I got to know some of the families quite well. One family hired out the work of silage chopping and filling their silo. The children were sent up to level out the top of the silage before the last load was blown in. A little girl was accidentally poked in the knee with a pitchfork during this job. She complained about pain, but there was little blood. So the parents didn’t take her to the doctor until days later when an infection had set in, threatening to leave her with a stiff leg. The parents didn’t believe in germs, because they had never seen one.
Are you kidding me?
Really they didn’t believe in germs??
But then how do they believe in God if they have never seen God?
It’s true
My father did a good amount of business with the Amish, and my brother continues to. We got to know the families and community. There was one family who vaccinated with the MMR back in the 80’s , the child developed a high fever and was diagnosed with Autism not long after. I will never forget the sheer horror as the parents and other families close to them described how quickly it happened after that shot. No other family in the community dared get any vaccines after that incident. No other family had a child since with autism. Childhood cancer is also virtually non existent in that very large community, as well as the adults. They do smoke in the community , and I do see drinking, but not in excess. They work hard dawn to dusk, so lots of physical activity. They do drink a lot of raw milk. I haven’t seen soda or things like novelty drinks. They don’t cook anything in toxic pans or bakeware . Many DO have cell phones, but not used like we do. They don’t have wireless routers in their homes !
They don’t get sick a lot, and use mostly “ natural “ medicines. I have never met one that takes a prescription medication!
Our family although not Amish lives mostly the same way, no artificial ingredients, no toxic cookware, lots of physical activity , we do have a wireless router, tv, electricity. My parents have never been vaccinated and only one sibling has received one decades ago . The one sibling ( the oldest) is the only one that suffers from autoimmune issues. She developed a high fever after the vaccine and my parents made the choice to not vaccinate the rest of us after that. So you tell me, is all coincidence or not?? I don’t think so. I think vaccines and the other things mentioned all contribute to chronic illnesses, cancers, and Autism and other neurological illnesses . My parents just passed within 3 years of each other, Dad was 102 and Mom 101 and a half. They did not smoke, and had a very occasional drink, maybe 6 per YEAR.
Balance in diet is important, eat the carbs, but don’t gorge on them. Everything in moderation. Everything organic, if possible. No processed foods! And don’t stop moving your body, and keep your mind sharp, it needs to be exercised too! Mom and Dad were both sharp as tacks cognitively right to the end. Dad was still shoveling snow and driving at 99, and I went shopping to the mall with Mom just 2 weeks before her passing. She had more energy than me. Neither ever used or needed a walker. Zero medications. A daily multivitamin, that’s it.
Mom and Dad always told us to live like the Amish as much as was possible in today’s world.
The body doesn’t live forever, no matter how well you care for it. They died of “ old age “.
I hope to live as long as they did, but not sure that will happen with all the unknown substances in our food, air and environment now. I hope RFK. Jr can do something to make it better.
Doctors are so clueless about everything today it’s scary. They only follow the script they learn in school. They have stopped thinking on their own, and common sense seems absent. Avoid at all costs if you want to live a long healthy life!
Correlation ≠ Causality
Just because someone was vaccinated, and diagnosed autistic, doesn’t mean the two have anything to do with each other.
If the child diagnosed with autism received a piece of candy (common practice in many places) after the vaccine, then it could just as easily be misconstrued as “causing” autism.
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