Date:

December 5, 2017

Source:

Karolinska Institutet

Summary:

High
levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids in children’s blood are associated with a
reduced risk of asthma or rhinitis at the age of 16 years, new research shows.

New research from
Karolinska Institutet in Sweden reveals that high levels of polyunsaturated
fatty acids in children’s blood are associated with a reduced risk of asthma or
rhinitis at the age of 16 years. The study is published in The Journal of
Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Allergic diseases such as
asthma and rhinitis are common and often debut in childhood. Today we know that
disease risk is affected by both hereditary and environmental factors.

To date, the present
study is the largest to investigate the association between levels of
long-chain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in the blood and subsequent
development of asthma and other allergic diseases. This study was conducted as
part of the Swedish birth cohort BAMSE, and is based on analyses of omega-3 and
-6 fatty acids in blood samples from 940 children.

The results show that
children who had higher blood levels of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids at the
age of 8 years were less likely to have developed asthma or rhinitis by the age
of 16 years. High levels of an omega-6 fatty acid called arachidonic acid were
associated with a reduced risk of asthma and rhinitis at 16. Among children
with asthma or rhinitis at the age of 8 years, higher blood levels of
arachidonic acid were associated with a higher probability of being
symptom-free at age 16 years.

“Since allergies
often debut during childhood it is of particular interest to study if
children’s environment and lifestyle affect the development of these
diseases,” says study leader Anna Bergström, researcher at the Institute
of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet.

Polyunsaturated fatty
acids are essential to life, and the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids that the
body is unable to produce itself must be sourced from foods such as nuts and
certain vegetable oils; and long-chain omega-3 fatty acids are primarily found
in oily fish.

“These new results
and those of a previous study we carried out support the current dietary
guidelines to eat fish two to three times a week and to vary between oily and
lean fish,” says Dr Anna Bergström.

The study was financed by
the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial
Planning (Formas), the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Research Council
for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte), the Swedish Asthma and Allergy
Association, the Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation, Stockholm County Council
and the European Commission.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Karolinska Institutet. Note: Content may be edited for
style and length.

Journal Reference:

1.    Magnusson J, Ekström S,
Kull I, Håkansson N, Nilsson S, Wickman M, Melén E, Risérus U, Bergström A. Polyunsaturated
fatty acids in plasma at 8 years and subsequent allergic disease. The
Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, December 2017 DOI: 10.1016/j.jaci.2017.09.023

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Karolinska
Institutet. “Polyunsaturated fatty acids linked to reduced allergy
risk.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 5 December 2017. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171205092028.htm>.

Karolinska
Institutet. (2017, December 5). Polyunsaturated fatty acids linked to reduced
allergy risk. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 6, 2017 from
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171205092028.htm

Karolinska
Institutet. “Polyunsaturated fatty acids linked to reduced allergy
risk.” ScienceDaily.
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171205092028.htm (accessed December 6,
2017).