By Dr Cory Couillard 

New research has found that eating highly processed convenience foods can lead to an increased risk of asthma and eczema in children. Rising levels of allergy-related conditions in more than 500,000 children in over 50 countries have been directly correlated to poor dietary patterns.
Data showed children risked severe asthma, watery eyes, itchy skin and eczema when consuming foods such as take-away burgers and other convenience foods. 
It was found that teenagers who ate three or more weekly servings of take-aways had a 39 per cent increased risk of severe asthma. Six and seven-year-olds were found to have a 27 per cent greater risk.  
“If the associations between fast foods and the symptom prevalence of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema is causal, then the findings have major public health significance owing to the rising consumption of fast foods globally,” according to the study authors, Prof Innes Asher, from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and Prof Hywel Williams, from the University of Nottingham in the UK.
 

Treating the cause of asthma
Take-away foods often contain dangerous levels processed sugars, saturated- and trans-fatty acids that can negatively harm one’s immune system. The strength of one’s immune system is directly related to the body’s ability to fight off and respond to allergens that are in our environment.  
The common treatment includes inhalers, creams and other ointments that treat the symptoms without addressing the underlying cause of the conditions. Conditions that are developed at an early age are commonly more difficult to treat and reverse over time.   
Fruits boost one’s immunity
The report demonstrates the importance of eating plenty of fruit.  Fruits are rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals and are found to be protective against immune suppression.  
Simply by eating three or more portions of fruit per week was found to cut the risk of severe asthma, eczema and rhinoconjunctivitis by 11 to 14 per cent.  
Historically individuals who have asthma were not required to follow a special diet. The findings of the study suggest that an improved diet could improve or lessen the severity of asthma symptoms as well.  
Asthma UK advises people with asthma to eat a healthy, balanced diet that includes at least five servings of fruit or vegetables every day and fish more than twice a week.  
Other contributing food allergies can be looked at if the individual is consuming the adequate amount of fruits and vegetables as well. Food products such as cow’s milk, nuts, gluten, shellfish and foods that have preservatives and colourings can possibly make the conditions worse.  
 

Vitamin D and asthma
Increasing one’s vitamin D can significantly improve asthma according to recent research published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.  Researchers found that vitamin D deficiency is linked to increased airway reactivity, lower lung function and worse asthma control.  
Vitamin D supplementation may improve asthma control by blocking inflammation in the airways and lungs. Inflammation is the leading cause of airway constriction and asthma. 
 
Vitamin D is often called “the sunshine vitamin” because our bodies make it when we are exposed to sunlight but it is also available in one’s diet. Vitamin D rich foods include:
Fish such as tuna fish, salmon, mackerel and sardines 
Eggs 
Dairy products such as milk, cheese and yogurt 
A healthy diet means eating natural versus processed food items.  Fruits, vegetables and healthy-lean meats will strengthen one’s immune system versus deplete it. To prevent or treat asthma – improve your diet.
 

Dr Cory Couillard is an 
international healthcare speaker and columnist for numerous 
newspapers, magazines, websites and publications throughout the world. He works in collaboration with the World Health Organisation’s goals of disease prevention and global healthcare education. Views do not necessarily reflect endorsement. 
 
E-mail: 
drcorycouillard@gmail.com
Facebook: Cory Couillard
Twitter: Cory_Couillard

View the article’s original source
Author: Iona Twaddell

Baby with eczema

New research suggests that babies might become sensitive to food through damaged skin, for example in eczema.

You wouldn’t think you could develop a food allergy through your skin, but according to new research a weaker skin barrier as caused by eczema could lead to food sensitivity.

Researchers from King’s College London and a Wellcome Trust-funded lab at the University of Dundee, studied 600 three-month-old babies. They found that babies with weaker skin, especially those with a form of eczema called atopic dermatitis, were over six times more likely to be sensitive to certain foods like egg, cow’s milk and peanut than their healthy-skinned peers, meaning that they had a positive allergy test in reaction to these foods.

The research, published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, was part of the EAT (Enquiring About Tolerance) study, which investigates whether introducing common allergens like peanuts into the diet at 3 (as opposed to 6) months might help reduce food allergies later on. Allergies occur when the immune system responds to a substance (allergen) that is actually harmless, attacking it. All the children involved were breastfed from birth, so had never eaten any solid food, let alone the allergenic food they were exposed to here. Therefore, any sensitivity to the food could not have been because immune cells in the digestive system were exposed to allergenic food. Immune cells elsewhere must have been exposed to the allergens. The suggestion is that with a weakened barrier to the outside world (like the thinner skin found in eczema), allergens present in the environment can make contact with immune system cells that are found in the skin, triggering an allergic immune response. So food allergies develop from the outside in, starting at the skin.

The link between eczema and allergies (including asthma) has long been known, but this is one of the first studies showing this effect in young babies and directly assessing the effectiveness of the skin barrier. Researchers tested food sensitivity by using a tiny needle containing a sample of the allergenic food to prick an area of the baby’s skin. If the skin reacted by forming a swelling, this counted as food sensitivity. The food causing the most reactions was egg white, followed by cow’s milk and peanut. If a baby’s eczema was more severe, so was their reaction to the food.

Of course, food sensitivity doesn’t necessarily lead to a clinical allergy. Nevertheless, the findings have implications for both the study of eczema and food allergies. Says Dr Carsten Flohr, first author on the study, “If we can repair the skin barrier and treat atopic dermatitis, we might also be able to reduce the risk of food allergies.”

Furthermore, the skin is not the only place where food allergies will develop. Children can have a food sensitivity without having eczema first. Other genes will also have an impact on the development of both eczema and food sensitivity, reacting with environmental factors like hygiene, water hardness and bacteria found on the skin. Part of EAT’s remit is to follow these children up to see if, as the researchers suspect, exposure to these allergens earlier on in life, at three months, may help reduce future allergies – a practice that goes against current government recommendations.

Though it seems counterintuitive that being fed potential allergens early could reduce later allergies, while exposure through the skin increases them, Dr Flohr says it makes sense if you think evolutionarily. “Anything that reaches the immune system from across the digestive tract is seen as ‘good’ because the food given to us by our parents is not likely to be harmful.” It’s different for things coming through the skin, which tend to be ‘bad’ things like parasites. Thus, immune cells in the gut might see most things they come across as harmless, those in the skin will label anything they’re exposed to as harmful.

Reference

• Flohr C, Perkin M, Logan K, Marrs T, Radulovic S, Campbell LE, Maccallum SF, McLean WH, & Lack G (2013). Atopic Dermatitis and Disease Severity are the Main Risk Factors for Food Sensitization in Exclusively Breastfed Infants. Journal of Investigative Dermatology. PMID: 23867897

Image credit: Flickr, Christina Spicuzza