A Maitland scientist is at the helm of a new study demonstrating the benefits of a fibre-rich diet in reducing airway inflammation and curbing the onset of asthma in both pregnant mothers and their infants.
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Dr Vanessa Murphy and the team from the University of Newcastle’s Centre for Asthma and Respiratory Disease have provided vital human data in their international paper titled, Evidence that asthma is a developmental origin disease influenced by maternal diet and bacterial metabolites.
“The initial studies showed that those fed a high-fibre diet had fewer asthma-like symptoms when exposed to an allergen,” Dr Murphy said.
“They also studied the offspring and found a similar result.”
As part of the study researchers used data from pregnant women who had completed a 24-hour food questionnaire, which highlighted a correlation between fibre intake and acetate levels in their blood.
Where the mothers had high acetate levels their infants were less likely to have GP visits for coughs and wheezing in the first 12 months of life.
Acetate, produced through the conversion of soluble fibre, is known to have anti-inflammatory effects as it circulates through the blood stream to the lungs and heart.
“The Western diet is lacking in fibre and this paper proposes that it could be one reason why asthma is becoming more prevalent,” Associate Professor Lisa Wood said.