More newborns wanted for UWA fish oil trial
Four in ten babies in Australia will develop
asthma or allergies due to a dramatic incidence in these diseases
over the last 20 to 30 years and researchers at The University
of Western Australia are hoping a safe, simple, natural dietary
supplement - fish oil - may hold the key to prevention.
Professor Susan Prescott, head of the
research group in UWA's School of Paediatrics and Child Health,
and research fellow Dr Jan Dunstan are calling for pregnant
women with a family history of allergy to sign up their unborn
babies for the study.
More than 340 women are enrolled and the
researchers are seeking another 60.
A previous study found that giving pregnant
women fish oil supplementation resulted in newborns with reduced
immune responses to allergens such as house dust mites, cats
and eggs.
Professor Prescott and Dr Dunstan believe
one reason for the prevalence of asthma and allergies is the
decline in dietary n-3 anti-inflammatory polyunsaturated fats
(PUFA) such as fish oil in Western diets with a corresponding
increasing in n-6 PUFA fatty acids.
They hope to study the effects of fish
oil supplementation on newborns at regular intervals until
the children are five years old, with a control group being
administered an identical-tasting olive-oil placebo.
"The supplements will be supplied
as a capsule containing 650mg fish oil, which will be given
to the baby by squirting it into their mouth or on a teaspoon
and this will not interfere with the mother's choice to breast
feed," Professor Prescott said. "The fishy taste
will be disguised with vanilla flavouring.
"The bigger population to be recruited
for this study will allow us to determine if increasing dietary
n-3 PUFA is a way of reducing the chance of allergy in families
where there is a high genetic risk.
"Strategies such as this that reduce
the risk or the severity of disease expression could have
enormous impact in a global context at relatively little cost."
For information about the trial
call: +61 8 9340 8834 or email: www.paediatrics.uwa.edu.au/go/cair
Professor Susan Prescott (School
of Paediatrics and Child Health) 61 8 9340 8171
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs) 61 8 6488 5563 / 0432
637 716
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