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DrGreene Content
What can you give a child to help prevent asthma? Asthma in children has more than doubled in the last decade, and quadrupled since 1973. Scientists are scrambling to understand the changes in our environments responsible for this rapid increase. One part of the environment gaining more attention is the tiny world that lives inside our own intestines. A typical healthy child might carry a pound or two of beneficial bacteria in his or her body – an entire ecosystem. These intimate neighbors form something like a neighborhood watch, helping us to respond well to dangerous strangers entering the body. In trying to understand asthma and other allergic diseases, one of the key questions is, "What event might first trigger the allergy?" Allergies in humans always follow exposure to some allergen. But for most children, repeated exposure to many common allergens leads to increasing tolerance, not to increased allergies. Researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor demonstrated one reason allergies might develop instead. Their elegant study appears in the January 2005 Infection and Immunity. They exposed mice to different allergens in the air, including egg protein and mold spores. The mice did not develop asthma, even with repeated exposure. But when some of the mice were given antibiotics that killed many of the beneficial bacteria in their guts, exposure to the same allergens did trigger allergic sensitization and wheezing. This held true in mice genetically predisposed to get asthma, and in those who were not. Breathing allergens did not trigger airway allergies in any of the mice except those whose gut bacteria had been damaged. Other research has shown that giving pregnant and nursing moms probiotics (beneficial bacteria such as those found in yogurts) results in decreased allergic skin disease in their children. Breastfeeding by itself promotes the growth of healthy bacteria within. I suggest reserving antibiotic use in children for situations where the medicines are really important. I also suggest giving probiotics whenever antibiotics are given, to quickly replenish the bacteria within and to minimize antibiotic side effects. It also makes sense to me to minimize chemical preservatives and bleaches in what we give our children to eat and drink, and instead to give them a healthy variety of fresh whole foods. There is another way to nurture healthy bacteria in the gut, beyond giving kids new bacteria (probiotics) and beyond avoiding destroying those they already have (antibiotics). Prebiotics are substances that promote the growth of healthy gut bacteria. They are found naturally in many foods including bananas, whole wheat, garlic, onions, leeks, honey, tomatoes, chicory, and asparagus. In general, foods that are high in fiber, whether grains, legumes, greens and other vegetables, or berries and other fruits, tend to be foods that give valuable gifts beyond just good eating.
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Alan Greene MD FAAP
Reviewed by: Alan Greene MD FAAP
Originally published: December 24, 2004
Last reviewed and updated: December 2005
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