Childhood Allergies can Increase Adolescent IBS Risk

Asthma and food hypersensitivity at age 12 are linked to an increased risk of having irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) at 16 and reports a new study. The findings of the study are published in the UEG Journal.

In her presentation, Jessica Sj�lund, MD, said that allergy and immune dysregulation might play a role in IBS development, but the current study has produced conflicting results.

‘Irritable bowel syndrome affects over one in ten people and is the most common functional gastrointestinal disorder. ’

"One of the reasons for this is epidemiological evidence of higher than expected prevalence of allergy-related diseases in people with IBS," she said. "To recognize and understand a possible connection between allergy-related diseases and IBS is vital as it bears the potential for influencing both future diagnostics and treatment of IBS."

Researchers explored this potential connection using data from 2,770 participants from the Swedish BAMSE cohort. In the study, parents and kids completed questionnaires about food hypersensitivity, asthma, eczema, and allergic rhinitis at ages 1-16 years at frequent intervals. When the kids reached age 16 years, they answered questions based on the Rome III Questionnaire on Pediatric Gastrointestinal Symptoms. Investigators used these answers to group the kids into IBS, functional abdominal pain, and functional dyspepsia groups.

At age 16 years, the prevalence of IBS was 6.4 percent.

Researchers compared the prevalence of allergy-related diseases among patients with and without IBS. They found that patients with IBS at 16 were more likely to have had asthma at the age of 12 compared to those without IBS. Over 40 percent of IBS patients reportedly had food hypersensitivity at age 12 years compared with just over 29 percent of people without IBS.

In their study, researchers determined that asthma and food hypersensitivity, and eczema were linked to an increased risk for concurrent IBS at age 16 years.

"These results imply that allergy-related diseases and IBS share some common cause or disease mechanism," said Sj�lund. "This could be low-grade inflammation or immune dysfunction, which is a known factor in allergy-related diseases. This information could be used to develop new treatment options for irritable bowel syndrome, for example, targeting these processes and consider using the same treatment principles for both allergy-related diseases and IBS."

Source: Medindia