Asthmatics At Higher Risk of Food Allergies

A team of researchers from National Jewish Health (Colorado, USA) has identified that asthmatics are at a higher risk of having food allergies, and such allergies may be an under-recognized trigger of asthma attacks.  Andrew H. Liu and colleagues analyzed data from 8,203 people, ages 1 to 60 years, enrolled in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey: 2005-2006, and were tested for antibodies to four specific foods: peanuts, milk, eggs and shrimp, with IgE antibody levels determining the degree of sensitization. The team found that likely food allergies were twice as common among participants who had ever received an asthma diagnosis, as compared to those with no asthma diagnosis. Further, the odds of having food allergies grew with increasing severity of asthma. Those who currently have asthma were 3.8 times as likely to have food allergies, as compared to those who had previously been diagnosed with the disease but no longer had it. Those who had visited an emergency department for asthma in the past year were almost seven times as likely to have food allergies, with 15.8% of subjects who had visited the emergency department for asthma having IgE levels indicating possible or likely food allergies.  While researchers were not able to determine if food allergies actually cause asthma attacks or if asthma and food allergies are both manifestations of a severe allergic profile, they speculate that food-allergic reactions might be triggered in some people with asthma only when combined with strenuous exercise.