Animal Fur May Lower Your Baby's Risk of Asthma During Childhood

Animal fur may be good for your health--at least if you're a baby. Scientists have found that sleeping on animal fur in the first three months of life may reduce the risk of asthma in later childhood.

Previous studies have shown that exposure to a wider range of environments from a young age can actually help children protect themselves against asthma and allergies. While these findings haven't been confirmed conclusively in urban settings, this latest study just adds to the growing body of evidence.

In this case, scientists examined data from a German birth cohort, which included over 3,000 healthy newborns who were mainly recruited in 1998. The researchers collected information on exposure to animal skin during the first three months of life, along with information on the health of the children until the age of 10 years. In all, information on 2,441 children was used in this study, and 55 percent of those included slept on animal skin in the first three months of life.

So what did they find? It turns out that sleeping on animal skin was associated with a reduced risk of a number of factors connected to asthma. In fact, the chance of having asthma at the age of six was 79 percent lower in children who had slept on animal skin after birth compared with those who were not exposed to animal skin. The risk decreased to 41 percent by the age of 10.

"Previous studies have suggested that microbes found in rural settings can protect from asthma," said Christina Tischer, one of the researchers, in a news release. "An animal skin might also be a reservoir for various kinds of microbes, following similar mechanisms as has been observed in rural environments. Our findings have confirmed that it is crucial to study further the actual microbial environment within the animal fur to confirm these associations."

The findings were presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress in Munich.