Fruits and Veggies May Trigger Kid's Allergies Not Lower

A new study out of Stockholm, Sweden, now raises questions about fruits and vegetables consumed by children with allergies may not be helping at all.

Antioxidants are found in abundance in fruits and vegetables and are believed to decrease airway inflammation. Past recent studies had indicated that children who consumed more of those green veggies had less asthma, wheezing and hay fever.

Dr. Helen Roselund, PhD, Karolinska Institutet, who headed the new study had stated their may be a flaw to those studies.

Dr. Roselund notes that some proteins in fruits like apples are much like the pollen parts which trigger hay fever. This means kids can react to both which means allergies that already exist may have cause them to eat around the greens. She continues this could confuse research results by falsely advocating that diets which contain less fruits and vegetables end up in more allergic disease.

To determine if this was the case, researchers examined information on almost 2,500 eight year-olds who had participated since birth in a larger Swedish study.

Based on blood tests and questionnaires that parents had filled out, researchers had discovered that 7% of the children had asthma. Cases of skin rashes and hay fever were nearly double.

On average a child consumed between one and two servings of fruit and two to three servings of vegetables each day.

At first look, it appeared the greens did help, kids who had the largest appetites for fruit had two-thirds the odds of developing hay fever in comparison to those kids who consumed less.

Apples, pears and carrots appeared to help but there was no association to vegetables.

It did occur that half the kids with hay fever had a sensitivity to birch tree pollen, one of the pollens that is much like proteins in apples and carrots.

The researchers had repeated their examination omitting the 122 children with food associated allergy symptoms, the hay fever associated had vanished.

Dr. Roselund states that fruits did not give protection against allergic disease if diet modifications are considered.

Researchers state more studies are required especially in other areas of the world that could have a different variety of allergy triggers or allergens. The also suggest that future studies observe how allergies may influence what participants consume.

Some alternative treatment for allergies:

Chiropractic

Chiropractic care is the number one choice on alternative medicine especially with parents. By removing stress on the nervous system, the immune system functions more properly and more efficiently. Chiropractic corrects the cause of the body malfunction to improve functioning of the immune system. Through gentle manipulations the sinuses and lungs open up and the body becomes strong on the immune system level. Some parents claim their children love chiropractic care as stated by one mom on channel nine news less than one year ago. For the article see channel nine news Colorado.

Acupuncture

A study conducted in Hong Kong of 85 participants aged six to nineteen who suffered allergies. Children had undergone sham acupuncture for two to eight weeks. Some of the children were able to stop using antihistamine medications among other medications during the treatments. The childrens symptoms did come back after two weeks or more so follow-up treatments are suggested.Sources:

Channel 9 News

DeMoss Chiropractic

MSNBC

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