What the Amish can teach us about health

The mindbodygreen Podcast

mindbodygreen

Alternative Health, Health & Fitness

4.5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2026

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are your kids too clean for their own good? Amish children experience 90% less asthma than the national average—not despite getting dirty, but because of it. When scientists analyzed the dust in their farmhouses, they discovered an invisible ecosystem that was training immune systems to be resilient instead of reactive. In his episode, host Jason Wachob explores the groundbreaking research behind the "hygiene hypothesis" and its implications for modern parents raising kids in an increasingly sanitized world. This discovery is forcing us to rethink everything about dirt, bacteria, and health. And it's already led to treatments used by 100+ million people worldwide. Are we too clean for our own good? Study Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37210851/ Chapters: [00:18] The Amish morning: A scene from another era [02:23] The asthma epidemic vs. farm kids' secret weapon [04:30] What's really in farm dust? (It's not what you think) [05:46] Bacterial lysates: Recreating farm protection in a lab [08:22] The hygiene hypothesis: Why clean might be too clean 🎙️ This new format episode, hosted by founder and co-CEO Jason Wachob, is from the mindbodygreen podcast, where science meets meaning—and small shifts lead to big health changes. If this story resonated with you: 👍 Like this video 🔔 Subscribe for more science-backed stories on longevity, nutrition, and whole-body health Read more here:⁠ https://www.mindbodygreen.com/⁠ Shop our supplements: ⁠https://shop.mindbodygreen.com/⁠ Join 1M+ subscribers on their journey towards strong and healthy: ⁠https://www.mindbodygreen.com/newsletters⁠ Follow us: Instagram: @mindbodygreen TikTok: @mindbodygreen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Mind Buddy Green podcast. I'm Jason Wacob, founder and co-CEO of My Buddy Green and your host.
0:07.4	Prime Video brings the best in entertainment. The end of the world continues with season two of the global phenomenon, fallout, included with Prime.
0:17.0	I defer to you about what to do in this situation. Bring home the epic conclusion to the untold story of the witches of Oz.
0:23.0	Buy or rent, Wicked for Good Now.
0:24.9	I'm taking you to see the wizard.
0:27.3	There's no going back.
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0:32.3	Click or tap the banner to find out more.
0:37.2	Right, that's it. Come on. Lights out. You've got a test tomorrow. Just two minutes. I'm about
0:41.4	to reach the next level. It's going off now. Yeah, whatever. Let's see. Where's the app?
0:46.7	Oh, here it is. Ha. What? How? Oh, no. You're out. Better look next time.
0:52.3	Mom! It's game over for late nights on school nights.
0:56.2	EEE Wi-Fi controls help you get them off the Wi-Fi and into bed. More parents are choosing EE broadband, the UK's fastest growing broadband provider.
1:05.1	To verify I see EE.com.com. Welcome to the MindBuddy Green podcast. Today I want to tell you a story about dirt, bacteria,
1:13.1	and how the cleanest kids might actually be the sickest. And it all started with a mystery
1:19.6	hidden in plain sight on America's farms. Picture this. You're driving through rural
1:26.6	Pennsylvania at dawn and the mist is still lifting off the fields. You're driving through rural Pennsylvania at dawn and the mist is still lifting
1:29.7	off the fields. You pass a farmhouse where an Amish family is already deep into their morning
1:35.0	routine. The father is leading a team of Belgian draft horses out to the fields. No tractors,
1:41.0	no GPS, just the ancient rhythm of human and animals working together.
1:47.0	Meanwhile, his wife is hanging the laundry in a line that stretches between massive oak trees,
	...

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