Sheepskin protects against allergies and asthma

09/08/2014

Asthma is relatively common in urban children, while rural children are much less likely to suffer from chronic inflammatory airways disease. At the European Respiratory Society (ERS) in Munich, Dr. Ing. Christina Tischer from the Helmholtz Zentrum München now presents the results of a study showing that a sheepskin can apparently develop the positive microbial effects of rural life in the city as well. The sheepskin has a protective effect against asthma and allergies, reports the ERS in its press release to the congress.

It was already known from previous studies that exposure to various microbial environmental factors at a young age protects against asthma and allergies, according to the Society's Communication. In their study, the researchers of Helmholtz Zentrum München have now investigated the effects of the widespread animal or sheepskin for babies in this context. They used the data of the German birth cohort for the analysis „Lisa Plus“ with more than 3,000 healthy newborns, mostly born in 1998. „The researchers collected information on the exposure of animal fur in the first three months of life and information about the health of children up to the age of ten years“, reports the European Respiratory Society.

More than half of the children sleep on an animal skin
In total, 2,441 children were included in the study, with 55 percent of children having slept on an animal fur in the first three months of life. „The results showed that sleeping on the animal hide was associated with a reduced risk of a number of asthma factors“, so the message of the ERS. According to the results of the Munich researchers, the risk of asthma was 79 percent lower in children who slept on animal fur after the age of six than in children who did not sleep on animal fur. At the age of ten, the asthma risk was still 41 percent lower.

Protective microorganisms in the sheepskin
The expert of the Helmholtz Zentrum München, Dr. med. Christina Tischer, explained that earlier studies had already established the protective effect of microbes in rural areas. The current results would suggest that an animal skin forms a reservoir for various types of microorganisms, thus triggering mechanisms similar to those in rural environments and also having a preventive effect on asthma in urban children. In a next step, it should now be examined which microorganisms are responsible for this protective effect. (Fp)