Omega-3 vetzuren tegen allergieën bij baby’s.*
Uit een Zweedse studie blijkt dat extra omega-3 vetzuren tijdens de
zwangerschap de kans op het ontstaan van eczeem en astma bij de baby fors kan verminderen. In de studie onder 145 zwangere vrouwen uit families die een verhoogde kans op astma en allergieën kreeg de ene helft vanaf week 25 in de zwangerschap tot de derde maand van de borstvoeding dagelijks omega-3 vetzuur capsules, de andere helft kreeg een placebo in de vorm van capsules met sojaolie. Toen de baby’s 1 jaar waren bleek meer dan de helft van de baby’s, waarvan de moeders de omega-3 capsules gekregen hadden geen allergische reactie op ei te geven in tegenstelling tot de baby’s van de moeders met de sojacapsules. Reactie op ei is een zeer duidelijke aanwijzing op het krijgen van allergische aandoeningen zoals astma en eczeem op latere leeftijd. In het bloed van de vrouwen die de extra omega-3 ingenomen hadden werden ook duidelijk minder ontstekingsmarkers aangetroffen dan in het bloed van de andere vrouwen. Deze prostaglandinen zijn het die de allergische reacties oproepen.
Omega 3 Fats Active Against Child Allergies
Omega-3 fats seem to have a protective effect on allergies in children. One year olds whose mothers had ingested fish oil during pregnancy and breastfeeding had considerably fewer allergic reactions than children whose mothers did not take this supplement, according to a study from Linkoping University in
Sweden.
The study, which started in 2005, comprised 145 pregnant mothers with families at heightened risk of developing allergy and asthma. From the 25th week of pregnancy through the third month of nursing, they were asked to take nine capsules of oil every day. Half of them were given fish oil with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, and the other half were given a placebo in the form of soybean
oil.
The study was doubly blind, that is, neither the participants nor the researchers knew who had received what.
It turned out that the "fish-oil children" had fewer than half as many reactions to eggs at the age of one year as the placebo group did. This is an important discovery, since allergic reactions to eggs early in life are strongly correlated with the later development of allergic disorders like eczema and asthma.
All of the children are now two years old and have undergone a clinical examination regarding eczema, been scratch-tested for eggs, milk, and cats, and left a blood sample.
The idea that the difference is truly an effect of the omega-3 fats is supported by an immunological study of the mothers' blood. The women who were given fish oil had less prostaglandin E2 in their blood than the others. This is a substance that triggers allergic immune responses, and it is known that it is depressed when the concentration of omega-3
increases.
"We have been able to show that omerga-3 influences the mother's immunological profile in a less inflammatory direction. Theoretically this can also affect the child's immune system, which is supported by the results of the scratch-tests," says the immune biologist Malin Fageras Bottcher, who led the study together in collaboration with the child allergist Karel Duchen.
VETENSKAPSRADET (THE SWEDISH RESEARCH COUNCIL)
Regeringstgatan 56
103 78 Stockholm (November 2007)
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