In the UK, approximately 1.1 million children (one in 11) are currently receiving treatment for asthma, and most adult asthma begins in childhood. Each year, the National Health Service (NHS) spends approximately 1 billion pounds treating and caring for people with asthma, and it is one of the most common chronic conditions affecting children which can be lifelong.
 
Asthma symptoms can range from minor respiratory troubles to being a health issue which interferes with daily activities, and, severe cases can result in life-threatening flare-ups. While there is no known prevention of asthma, a preliminary clinical trial published in the European Respiratory Journal found that among children with certain genetic makeups, the risk of developing asthma during childhood was substantially and significantly reduced through high intakes of omega-3s.
 
“Asthma is the most common chronic condition in childhood and we currently don’t know how to prevent it,” Professor Seif Shaheen from Queen Mary University of London, and senior author of the study, said. “It is possible that poor diet may increase the risk of developing asthma, but until now most studies have taken ‘snap-shots,’ measuring diet and asthma over a short period of time. Instead, we measured diet and then followed up children over many years to see who developed asthma and who didn’t.”
 
Fish were of particular interest to the researchers, due to their richness in omega-3 fatty acids, two unique compounds which are evidenced to ameliorate inflammatory responses in clinical research. The researchers sourced their data from a large UK birth cohort, Children of the ‘90s, which has been following up with offspring since their birth in the early 1990s.
 
The authors analyzed associations between the intake of EPA and DHA from fish at 7 years of age, which was estimated from food frequency questionnaires, and incidence of new cases of doctor-diagnosed asthma at 11-14 years of age. While omega-3s intake from fish was not associated with asthma risk in the 4,543-person cohort as a whole, the researchers found that children with a particular genetic variant in the fatty acid desaturase (FADS) gene could reduce their asthma risk by as high as 51% through high omega-3s intake compared to the lowest quartile of this unique group.
 
Those who carry the FADS gene in question are more likely to have lower circulating levels of omega-3s, the authors of the study said, also noting that an independent birth cohort study in Sweden called BAMSE shared a similar finding.
 
“While we cannot say for certain that eating more fish will prevent asthma in children, based on our findings, it would nevertheless be sensible for children in the UK to consume more fish, as few currently achieve recommended intake,” Shaheen said.
 
Given that the data is still observational, the researchers caution that they cannot say for certain that high omega-3 intake can mitigate the risk of developing childhood asthma – the next step is to see if a higher intake can lower the risk of exacerbated asthma symptoms in children who have it.