David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Childhood stress increases allergies risk later in life
Thu, Jun 19 2008
Moving house or the separation of parents may significantly increase the risk of children developing allergies later on according to results from a long-term study correlating life-style, immune system development and allergies.
Stress events during childhood are suspected of playing a role in the later development of asthma, allergic skin disorders, or allergic sensitizations. Dramatic life events such as the death of a family member, serious illnesses of a family member or the separation of parents, but also harmless events like for example moving house are suspected of increasing the risk of allergies for the children affected.
While a link between stressful events and the development of allergies has been known for some time, the mechanisms behind this remained unexplained.
The immune system is thought to be a mediator role between stress on the one hand and allergies on the other so Dr Gunda Herberth and colleagues from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig (UFZ), the Helmholtz Zentrum M?nchen and the Institut f?r Umweltmedizinische Forschung (IUF) in Duesseldorf, Germany attempted to identify stress-related factors showing an influence on the immune system, using data from the Lifestyle - Immune System - Allergy (LISA) epidemiological study.
They also examined blood samples taken from 234 six-year old children and discovered increased blood concentrations of the stress-related peptide VIP (vasoactive intestinal polypeptide) in connection with moving house or the separation of parents.
Neuropeptide VIP could take on the mediator role between stress events in life and the regulation of immune responses, the researchers write in the scientific journal Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.
Together with colleagues from the Institute for Social Medicine at the University of L?beck the researchers also analyzed the most diverse social factors in the children's environment, in order to discover which factors were causing stress-related regulation deficiencies of the immune system.
In children whose parents had separated over the last year the researchers found not only increased blood concentrations of neuropeptide VIP but also increased concentration of immune markers which are related to the occurrence of allergic reactions such as the cytokine IL-4.
By comparison, serious illness or the death of close relatives produced no significant changes. Likewise, the unemployment of parents was not associated with increased concentrations of the stress-related peptides. As tragic as these events are, they appear less significant in terms of the children's stress reactions than, for example, a separation or the divorce of parents, the researchers concluded.
As was already shown in an earlier result, increased stress peptide VIP concentrations can also be found in the blood of children after moving house (similar to the separation of parents).
An earlier analysis of the LISA data found there is a relationship between an increased neuropeptide VIP concentrations and allergic sensitizations among six-year old children. While those results were not conclusive because of the comparatively small number of children affected, they nevertheless provide valuable indications as to what happens in the body through stress.
The LISA study investigates the influences of lifestyles on immune system development in early childhood and the emergence of allergies.
For the study over 3000 newborn children in the cities of Munich, Leipzig, Wesel and Bad Honnef, Germany were recruited between the end of 1997 and the beginning of 1999. Parents were repeatedly asked about various lifestyle-related factors and disease outcomes. Furthermore, blood tests were carried out at different times. At the age of six a total of 565 children were examined and blood analyses of stress and immune parameters were carried out on 234 of these.
Over the course of the 6-year study nearly one third of the families living in Leipzig were affected by unemployment. About half of all families experienced severe illnesses in close family members. Cases of death among family members or the separation of parents were less common affecting 10 to 16 percent of the children.
Source: Herberth G, Weber A, R?der S, et al. Relation between stressful life events, neuropeptides and cytokines: an epidemiological study. Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2008; doi:10.1111/j.1399-3038.2008.00727.x [Abstract]
Thu, Jun 19 2008
Moving house or the separation of parents may significantly increase the risk of children developing allergies later on according to results from a long-term study correlating life-style, immune system development and allergies.
Stress events during childhood are suspected of playing a role in the later development of asthma, allergic skin disorders, or allergic sensitizations. Dramatic life events such as the death of a family member, serious illnesses of a family member or the separation of parents, but also harmless events like for example moving house are suspected of increasing the risk of allergies for the children affected.
While a link between stressful events and the development of allergies has been known for some time, the mechanisms behind this remained unexplained.
The immune system is thought to be a mediator role between stress on the one hand and allergies on the other so Dr Gunda Herberth and colleagues from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig (UFZ), the Helmholtz Zentrum M?nchen and the Institut f?r Umweltmedizinische Forschung (IUF) in Duesseldorf, Germany attempted to identify stress-related factors showing an influence on the immune system, using data from the Lifestyle - Immune System - Allergy (LISA) epidemiological study.
They also examined blood samples taken from 234 six-year old children and discovered increased blood concentrations of the stress-related peptide VIP (vasoactive intestinal polypeptide) in connection with moving house or the separation of parents.
Neuropeptide VIP could take on the mediator role between stress events in life and the regulation of immune responses, the researchers write in the scientific journal Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.
Together with colleagues from the Institute for Social Medicine at the University of L?beck the researchers also analyzed the most diverse social factors in the children's environment, in order to discover which factors were causing stress-related regulation deficiencies of the immune system.
In children whose parents had separated over the last year the researchers found not only increased blood concentrations of neuropeptide VIP but also increased concentration of immune markers which are related to the occurrence of allergic reactions such as the cytokine IL-4.
By comparison, serious illness or the death of close relatives produced no significant changes. Likewise, the unemployment of parents was not associated with increased concentrations of the stress-related peptides. As tragic as these events are, they appear less significant in terms of the children's stress reactions than, for example, a separation or the divorce of parents, the researchers concluded.
As was already shown in an earlier result, increased stress peptide VIP concentrations can also be found in the blood of children after moving house (similar to the separation of parents).
An earlier analysis of the LISA data found there is a relationship between an increased neuropeptide VIP concentrations and allergic sensitizations among six-year old children. While those results were not conclusive because of the comparatively small number of children affected, they nevertheless provide valuable indications as to what happens in the body through stress.
The LISA study investigates the influences of lifestyles on immune system development in early childhood and the emergence of allergies.
For the study over 3000 newborn children in the cities of Munich, Leipzig, Wesel and Bad Honnef, Germany were recruited between the end of 1997 and the beginning of 1999. Parents were repeatedly asked about various lifestyle-related factors and disease outcomes. Furthermore, blood tests were carried out at different times. At the age of six a total of 565 children were examined and blood analyses of stress and immune parameters were carried out on 234 of these.
Over the course of the 6-year study nearly one third of the families living in Leipzig were affected by unemployment. About half of all families experienced severe illnesses in close family members. Cases of death among family members or the separation of parents were less common affecting 10 to 16 percent of the children.
Source: Herberth G, Weber A, R?der S, et al. Relation between stressful life events, neuropeptides and cytokines: an epidemiological study. Pediatr Allergy Immunol. 2008; doi:10.1111/j.1399-3038.2008.00727.x [Abstract]
