Eating oily fish may protect asthma mothers’ babies

PREGNANT women with asthma may protect their unborn children from the disease by eating oily fish, it was claimed yesterday.

A study found that children whose mothers ate oily fish such as mackerel, salmon or tuna when pregnant had a 71% reduced risk of developing asthma themselves.

Children with non-asthmatic mothers did not experience any benefit.

Professor Frank Gilliland, from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, said: “Oily fish contain omega-3 fatty acids, which appear to be anti-inflammatory, and lead to the reduced potential for developing asthma and allergies.

“A family history of asthma is a very strong risk factor for a child developing asthma. It appears that oily fish interacts with the genes involved in the predisposition to develop asthma, and somehow reduces the risk.”

Not all fish are the same, however. The study also found that children whose mothers ate fish fingers during pregnancy doubled their risk of asthma, whether or not their mothers were asthmatic. Fish fingers, or “sticks”, are generally made from cod or some other kind of non-oily white fish.

Professor Gilliland, co-author of the study, said: “Fish sticks are deep-fried, and they contain omega-6 fatty acids, which encourage inflammation of the airways.”

Participants in the research were taken from the Children’s Health Study, a population-based investigation of school-aged children in 12 southern California communities.