Infants who suffer from eczema - the breakdown and inflammation of the skin - are more likely to suffer from food allergies, according to a new study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
Researchers at King's College London and the University of Dundee screened 600 three-month-old babies for eczema and for food allergies, finding a correlation between severity of eczema and food sensitivity, according to Science Daily.
"This work takes what we thought we knew about eczema and food allergy and flips it on its head — we thought that food allergies are triggered from the inside out, but our work shows that in some children it could be from the outside in, via the skin," Dr. Carsten Flohr, NIHR Clinician Scientist and Senior Lecturer at King's College London, told Medical Daily.
"The skin barrier plays a crucial role in protecting us from allergens in our environment, and we can see here that when that barrier is compromised, especially in eczema, it seems to leave the skin's immune cells exposed to these allergens. It opens up the possibility that if we can repair the skin barrier and prevent eczema effectively then we might also be able to reduce the risk of food allergies."
The research team added that food sensitivity does not always lead to clinical allergy.
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