Childhood Asthma symptoms and risk lowered with diet rich in fish and/or fish oil supplementation
Author: Deepa Kumar
[ad#full]A recent study published in the Journal of Asthma demonstrated the importance of the omega 6 to omega 3 ratio in diet as critical in being able to significant reduce the risk of childhood asthma. The study involved 355 school children in two groups. One group involved 166 children who were previously diagnosed with asthma at 6 years. The second group of the remaining 169 children was healthy and free of asthma. The risk factors were compared with the two groups that included gestational age, maternal asthma, breastfeeding duration and omega-6 to omega-3 ratio in diet. The researchers concluded that the risk of asthma was almost 3 times higher among children with the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio of 18 than among children with a ratio of 8. It is recommended to consume oily fish more than once a week to significantly reduce the risk of asthma. The inclusion of EPA and DHA, the two primary omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil is believed to be the primary benefit from consuming oily fish.
A separate study from Japan published in the European Respiratory Journal presented results on the benefits of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids for children with asthma. In this study with 29 children with varying ages in the range of 8 – 14 years who have been diagnosed with asthma on a average of 10 years ago. The children were randomly selected to receive fish oil supplements in the range of 2.4 – 4.8 gm per day of EPA and DHA depending on their body weight while some received olive oil capsules as placebo. After 10 months of treatment, there was more than 3 fold reduction in the severity and frequency of asthma attacks leading to the conclusion that fish oil supplementation does reduce the symptoms of asthma in children.
Nagakura, T., et al. 2000. Dietary supplementation with fish oil rich in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in children with bronchial asthma. European Respiratory Journal, 16(5).
Oddy, W.H., et al.2005. Ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids and childhood asthma. Journal of Asthma, 41(3).
