Prevalence of food intolerance in bronchial asthma in India

Abstract

Background and Objective : Food intolerance is an adverse reaction to food in which there is no involvement of defense (immune) system. There is some evidence for the use of food-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels as a guide to identify food intolerance. The current study was thus planned to study the prevalence of IgG-based food intolerance in bronchial asthma (BA) patients and healthy controls in Indian population. Materials and Methods: A total of 65 subjects were recruited for the study comprising 50 cases of BA and 15 healthy controls. These were assessed for food intolerance using specific IgG against selected food items. The results were graded as specific IgG against the selected food item: >30 U/mL - elevated and <30 -normal as per manufacturer`s recommendation. Results: The BA group had highest food intolerance against the vegetables, whereas in control subjects the food intolerance was highest for nuts. The prevalence of food intolerance was higher in male asthmatic patients, but in the control group females showed higher intolerance. The common food items to which food intolerance test was positive in descending order were cow milk (56%), casein (48%), tiger nut (48%), almond (46%), amaranth (46%), peanut (46%), soybean (44%), alga wakame (44%), scallop (44%), mulberry (42%) in asthmatic patients and almond (80%), cowmilk (73%), casein (66.6%), peanut (60%), cashew nut (60%), tiger nut (53.3%), carrot (53.3%), flax seed (53.3%), quino (53.3%), clan (53.3%), sunflower seed (53.3%) in control subjects. Conclusion: The specific IgG is a test to evaluate food intolerance. The common food items to which food intolerance test was positive in descending order were cow milk (56%), casein (48%), tiger nut (48%), almond (46%), amaranth (46%), peanut (46%), soybean (44%), alga wakame (44%), scallop (44%), mulberry (42%) in asthmatic patients.