Children with food allergies are twice as likely to have autism

A large population-based study found an association between allergies, including food allergies and autism spectrum disorders in children. But a child with an allergy does not mean it will be.

According to a study of national health data, American children are twice as likely to have autism spectrum disorder than children without food allergies. Population-based findings add empirical evidence that there may be a link between a deficiency or a strong immune response and neurodevelopmental disorder.

The researchers only looked at the link between allergy and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) , out of a total of 199,520 children aged 3-17 surveyed from 1997-2016 as part of the Interview Survey. US National Health Consultant. This research was not created for the purpose of discovering what this relationship might be.

Children with food allergies are twice as likely to have autism spectrum disorder than children without food allergies.

The team found that, out of 1,868 autistic children, there were 216 children with food allergies - about 11%. According to online reports of researchers on the JAMA Network Open on June 8, according to comparison, only about 4% of children without autism suffer from food allergies. Children with autism are also more likely to have respiratory allergies or skin allergies such as eczama than children without autism.

The number of children with autism has more than doubled since 2000, equivalent to about 1,000 children with autism. Meanwhile, the number of children with food allergies increased from 3.4% in 1997-1999 to 5.1% in 2009-2011.

According to research co-author and epidemiologist Wei Bao from the School of Public Health at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, it is unclear whether food allergies contribute to autism, or vice versa. Or, is there anything else that causes both of these . 'The cause of ASD is still unclear.'

Previous studies in mice and humans have shown a possible link between different immune system disorders with autism. Children with a family history of type 1 diabetes, or their relatives with rheumatoid arthritis or Celiac disease (gluten intolerance) are more likely to have autism. According to a 2014 study published on Behavioral Brain Research, mice with food allergies had typical behaviors of autism, such as repetitive or less social communication behaviors.

The director of the Lurie Autism Center at Massachusettes General Hospital in Boston, who wrote a commentary accompanying the study, said the new finding supports the idea of 'different manifestations of abnormalities about Immunity occurs in people with ASD ' . Food, respiratory and skin allergies are common in most people, but getting these allergies 'doesn't mean your child will have ASD'.