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Wow. We thought the Amish were just getting lots of healthy exercise, but it turns out they’re the genetic Knights Templar, guarding a secret source of life for

• hueving 9y ago
  >Of course, their lifestyle probably maintains the healthiest gut flora around as well. Is there any science behind that statement or is it just a sort of naturalistic fallacy?
  • freeflight 9y ago
    There is a study on Amish gut flora and it's relation to the metabolic syndrome [0]. Old Order Amish are ideal for studies like that due to them having such a genetically homogenous population. From a quick scan it seems like that even among the Old Order Amish there are variations between individuals gut flora, so I'm not sure they all have that "healthy gut flora" like the parent suggested. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3419686/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3419686/
  • chiefalchemist 9y ago
    There's more and more science about gut bacteria and general health - both body and brain. The gut...it matters ;)
  • zach 9y ago
    Just going off of an NYT article from last year about how Amish communities, and especially those who live among farm animals (what I, at least, think of as the "most Amish" lifestyle), have really healthy gut microbiomes: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/opinion/health-secrets-of-the-amish.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/opinion/health-secrets-of...
• dialtones 9y ago
  Given the amount of inbreeding, “Knights Templar” probably isn’t the phrase I’d use.