Black Male Childrens Have Highest Rates of Food Allergies

Children, males and blacks have the maximum rates of food allergies in the United States, and the risk is 4.4 times higher among male black children than in the general population, a new study finds.
Overall, 7.6 million people (2.5 percent of the U.S. population) are anticipated to have food allergies, according to researchers who analyzed data from 8,203 people, aged 1 year to 60 and older, who were included in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2005-06. The participants had their blood tested for antibodies to four specific foods: peanuts, milk, eggs and shrimp.
Food allergy rates were maximum (4.2 percent) among children aged 1 to 5 and lowest (1.3 percent) among adults elder than 60. Compared to the general population, food allergies were two times more common among children aged 1 to 19, three times more common among blacks and two times more common among males.
People with asthma were 3.8 times more likely to have food allergies than those who had previously been diagnosed with asthma but no longer had it. Food allergies were seven times more common among people who had an asthma-related emergency department visit in the past year than among those who had ever been diagnosed with asthma but hadn't been to an emergency department.
"This study provides further credence that food allergies may be contributing to severe asthma episodes, and suggests that people with a food allergyDr. Andrew Liu, and asthma should closely monitor both conditions and be aware that they might be related," study author  an associate professor of pediatrics at National Jewish Health in Denver, said in a news release from National Jewish.

Potential effects of Asthma-Like Symptoms Spotted in Mice

Results may lead to new treatments for people with severe forms of the airway disorder, researchers say, a possible inherited basis for severe asthma has been recognized by researchers, and although the findings are based on a study in mice, the discovery may someday help people.
Asthma rates have been growing in recent years. In inclined people, the illness can be triggered by a number of environmental factors, including cigarette smoke, allergens and air pollution, senior researcher Marsha Wills-Karp, director of the division of immunobiology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, noted in a hospital news release.
In their revise, the researchers found that an inflammation-causing protein called interleukin-17 (IL-17A) is the major cause of severe asthma-like symptoms in pests. The animals used in the study had been bred to have a genetic similarity to humans with severe susceptibility to asthma.
The finding "suggests that at some point it may be possible to treat or prevent strict forms of asthma by inhibiting pathways that drive the production of IL-17A," Wills-Karp said in the news release.
Scientists naturally caution, however, that many discoveries in animal models do not translate into therapies for humans.