About 8% of children in the U.S. have a food allergy, roughly double the share who did in 2007. It’s not solely clear why extra youngsters are being identified with meals allergic reactions, each within the U.S. and across the world—however as these probably life-threatening circumstances develop extra frequent, numerous researchers are learning easy methods to treat or prevent them.
A study printed in PLOS ONE on Mar. 29 affords one potential technique: get a pet. Amongst hundreds of infants in Japan, publicity to cats or canines throughout being pregnant or early infancy was related to a decrease threat of creating meals allergic reactions, the researchers discovered.
That discovering is predicated on information from the Japan Setting and Youngsters’s Examine, an ongoing trial that features about 100,000 ladies in Japan who turned pregnant from January 2011 to March 2014 and their kids. Youngsters within the examine are tracked till they flip 13 so researchers can study extra about how their dwelling circumstances and environmental exposures have an effect on their well being.
The brand new examine checked out about 66,000 kids whose moms supplied details about their pet publicity and meals allergic reactions. In comparison with kids with out pets, youngsters who had been uncovered to a cat or canine throughout being pregnant or early infancy had been roughly 15% much less more likely to develop allergic reactions to frequent triggers together with eggs, milk, wheat, soybeans, and nuts by age three, in accordance with their moms’ survey responses.
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Different pets—together with hamsters, turtles, and birds—didn’t appear to supply the identical advantages. Canines saved indoors had been additionally related to a bigger threat discount than canines saved outdoor.
Scientists don’t absolutely perceive the hyperlink between animal publicity and meals allergic reactions, the researchers write. One concept is that dwelling with pets alters infants’ microbiomes in a manner that protects them from food sensitivities, however extra analysis is required to say for certain.
The brand new examine must be taken with a grain of salt, because it depends on dad and mom’ survey solutions fairly than goal allergy diagnostics. This kind of information can also’t show trigger and impact—so, whereas the researchers thought-about elements like parental well being, the household’s socioeconomic standing, and the place they lived, it’s doable there’s one other rationalization for the hyperlink between pets and decrease charges of meals allergy.
Not all previous studies on pets and meals allergic reactions have come to the identical conclusion, the authors word. Nonetheless, different researchers have discovered that children who stay with pets throughout infancy are less likely to develop environmental allergies, asthma, and different respiratory illnesses. Pets are additionally related to better mental and physical health among adults—so adopting a cat or canine could also be useful for a whole family’s well being.
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