Vis
tijdens zwangerschap tegen overgevoeligheid bij kind.
Uit een Mexicaanse studie onder 462 zwangere vrouwen en hun kinderen tot de leeftijd van zes jaar blijkt dat vrouwen die, tijdens de zwangerschap, veel vis eten hun kinderen duidelijk minder last hebben van eczeem en atopische allergische aandoeningen. In de westerse wereld komt de laatste tijd meer en meer atopische allergieën en astma voor en wellicht komt dat doordat meer en meer omega-6 vetzuren gegeten worden en minder (vis)omega-3 vetzuren. Kinderen van moeders die 2,5 keer per week vis eten hebben 37% minder kans op eczeem als ze 1 jaar zijn en als ze zes zijn hebben ze 35% minder kans op een atopische allergie en zelfs 81% minder kans op atopische astma, dit alles vergeleken met kinderen van moeders die slechts 1 keer per week vis eten.
Eating
fish while pregnant protects children against atopic disease
Pregnant
women could reduce their child’s likelihood of developing atopic disease by
eating more fish, a study suggests.
Western countries have experienced increases in the incidence of atopy and
asthma, and this could be because n-3 PUFAs have been partially replaced in the
Western diet by n-6 PUFAs from vegetable oil and prepared food.
Recent studies suggest that children whose mothers took n-3 PUFA supplements
during pregnancy or who took supplements themselves in early life were protected
against both allergy and asthma.
Isabelle Romieu (National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Mexico) and
colleagues investigated whether intake of fish during pregnancy affects the
child’s likelihood of developing asthma or atopy.
The team studied data from a cohort of 462 women. The women were enrolled when
pregnant, and their children were followed-up until they were 6 years old. An
interviewer used a questionnaire to assess the women’s dietary intake of fish.
Eczema was diagnosed in 34% of the infants at 1 year of age, atopy in 14% at 6
years of age, and atopic wheeze in 5.7% of infants at age 6 years.
Analysis showed that the more fish a woman ate, the less likely her child was to
develop eczema by 1 year of age, or have a positive skin prick test or atopic
asthma at age 6 years.
This analysis adjusted for confounders including asthma or atopy in the mother,
and each of the associations reached statistical significance.
Compared with children whose mothers ate fish only once a week, those whose
mothers at fish 2.5 times a week were 37% less likely to develop eczema by 1
year of age.
The corresponding reductions in risk for a positive skin prick test and atopic
wheeze at age 6 years were 35% and 81%, respectively.
The team then analyzed the impact of breastfeeding on these associations, as
breastmilk contains high levels of n-3 PUFAs. This revealed that the protective
effect of maternal fish intake on the child’s risk of atopic wheeze and
persistent wheeze were limited to children who were not breastfed.
“Our data suggest a protective effect of fish intake during pregnancy on the
risk of atopy-related outcomes,” the researchers conclude in the journal
Clinical and Experimental Allergy.
Clin Exp Allergy 2007; 37: 518–525
Free
abstract (Mei 2007)