With studies showing that 4 percent of the U.S. adult population and between 4 to 6 percent of the nation’schildren have food allergies, it’s no wonder that experts pay significant attention to the effects that diet has on the human body. Recent data, however, reveals that the food people eat can actually have an affect on asthma, too.
Fast food, specifically,appears toincrease the risk of developing childhood asthma, according to recent research conducted in the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood. By testing 14-year-olds and 7-year-olds around the world, researchers determined that there was a clear link between the kinds of foods people eat and the symptoms of severe asthma, hay feverand eczema.
The children involved in the study who ate fast food more than three times a week were about 30 percent more likely to experience asthma symptoms. On the other hand, researchers determined that participants who ate fruit at least three times a week were, in some ways, less likely to experience symptoms of this chronic respiratory disease.
“It’s not at all surprising to me that a disease as complex as asthma would be directly affected by diet. We’ve known for a while that diet can affect immune system function with certain foods being pro or anti-inflammatory,” Dr. Stephen Teach, the chief of the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, told CNN.
Study author Hywell Williams clarified that although the study shows an association between diet and asthma symptoms, there could be other contributing factors that they haven’t yet measured.
It’s always best to talk to your doctor about what you can do to reduce your asthma symptoms, but there are simple products you can invest in to help eliminate the presence of certain triggers. A whole house air purifier can remove common irritants such as pet dander and dust mites directly from the air.
