Sun may be a factor in food allergies | Bundaberg Health | Fitness and Medical News in Bundaberg
Sun may be a factor in food allergies
CHILDHOOD food allergies are more common the further south you go in Australia, indicating sun exposure could be a critical factor.
Canberra-based allergy expert Dr Ray Mullins has constructed a national map of the allergy's incidence, and it shows a clear trend of it being "more common in the south than it is in the north".
"We've now got evidence that low vitamin D levels are associated strongly with the risk of developing it," Dr Mullins told AAP.
"The only thing that really came out was latitude, which is distance from the equator."
The body's major source of vitamin D is exposure to sunlight and a lack of it is known to heighten a person's risk of multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, cancer and even schizophrenia.
More research is needed to confirm the link to childhood food allergy, Dr Mullins said, but the deficiency has also been linked to a range of conditions involving an overly sensitive immune system.
"There are studies that have shown an increased risk of wheezing in the first couple of years of life if mum is vitamin D deficient," he said.
"... (Along with) increased risk of asthma and hay fever in the first five years of life."
Dr Mullins took in data from three sources to produce a map of the allergy in Australia, starting with 36,000 children Australia-wide who were prescribed special allergy-safe infant formula.
He also mapped the locations of 69,000 children prescribed an "EpiPen", emergency adrenaline to be used in case of a food allergy event.
Dr Mullins added the locations of 11,000 cases, over five years, of children who were rushed to hospital suffering an allergic reaction to food.
When accounting for factors that could skew the result, such as differences in population and access to doctors across the country, it showed a significant clustering in Australia's south.
When it came to the difference between Cairns and Hobart, Dr Mullins said incidences could be six times higher in the southern city.
"For EpiPens, there was a six-fold difference from far north to far south," Dr Mullins said.
"For infant formula it was three times more common (in the south) and for (hospital) admissions it was roughly two-fold."
Dr Mullins said Australia had a rising rate of childhood food allergy, with one in 20 children now affected by age five with milk, eggs and peanuts among problem foods.
"We have very little information on why food allergy has become more common in the last 10 years," Dr Mullins said.
"And there are lots of theories ... (But) there is accumulating evidence that vitamin D may have a role to play."
Dr Mullins also said the research should not be seen as encouragement for Australians to stop wearing sunscreen, as a person's required level of vitamin D could be obtained in just 20 minutes of mid-morning sun exposure.
Also, for those with existing food allergy, vitamin D supplements were unlikely to provide a cure.
"Once the switch has been thrown it is very hard to switch it off," he said.
"I don't think we'd encourage people (with food allergy) to start taking vitamin D and hope for the best."
The research is detailed in two papers published in the journals Paediatric Allergy and Immunology and the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
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