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The increase in the prevalence of asthma and allergy: food for thought

Abstract

Since about 1960, the prevalence of asthma and allergic disease has increased sufficiently to become a major public-health concern. Concurrently, there have been marked changes in our diet, and it has been proposed that these changes have contributed to the increase in the prevalence of asthma and allergy. In this article, these hypotheses about diet are described, together with the postulated mechanisms and the evidence for and against, leading to the most recent evidence indicating that maternal diet during pregnancy might be particularly important in the development of childhood asthma.

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Figure 1: Immunological pathways that result in the inflammatory changes that occur in the airways of individuals with asthma.
Figure 2: The increase in the prevalence of asthma, eczema and hay fever since 1964.
Figure 3: The association between a westernized lifestyle and asthma.
Figure 4: Potential mechanisms by which maternal diet during pregnancy can influence the development of childhood asthma and allergy.

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Acknowledgements

G.D. acknowledges the support of Asthma UK.

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Devereux, G. The increase in the prevalence of asthma and allergy: food for thought. Nat Rev Immunol 6, 869–874 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri1958

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