New research indicates that reducing childhood obesity may help to prevent allergies.

The study results are available in the May issue of Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The research shows that obese children and adolescents are at significant increased risk of allergy – especially food allergy.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health through the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Dr Darryl Zeldin, MD and acting director of NIEHS was the senior author of the research findings. He says that the study shows a positive association between obesity and allergies. A positive association does not mean that obesity definitely causes allergy: more research is needed to establish a causal effect.

The study made use of new data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). NHANES is a large survey, conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). This survey allowed for a large population to provide health and nutritional information for both adults and children, including allergy and asthma data.

Zeldin said, “We have all the pieces of the puzzle in this dataset.” The completeness of the information in the NHANES survey included allergen exposure information, allergic sensitization information and data on disease outcome. This allowed researchers to tie the development of allergic disease to contributing preceding factors.

The newest analysis of the data looked at over 4000 individuals between 2 and 19 years of age. IgE levels were reviewed in relation to indoor, outdoor, and food allergens, as well as body weight and diagnoses of hay fever, eczema or allergy. Researchers found that IgE levels were highest in children who were obese or overweight. Obesity alone appeared to elevate allergy risk: obese kids were 26 per cent more likely to have allergies than normal weight kids.

The rate of food allergy was even higher. Obese children had food allergies at a rate almost 60 per cent higher than their normal weight cohorts.

Source: EurekaAlert