Over the last 30 years the incidence of childhood allergic (or atopic) diseases, like asthma and eczema, seem to have increased by a whopping 300%. Although the major reason for developing allergic disease is due to family genetics, more and more studies have emerged showing how the health of the mother during pregnancy also plays a role. Things like environmental pollution, maternal diet, and maternal stress have all been shown to be possible causes. Learning about these causative factors can help mothers make more preventative choices before they even start to conceive a child, as well as during gestation, and after delivery.
Environmental noxious agents like formaldehyde, industrial and traffic smog, wood preservatives, microbial toxins, additive-rich food, nicotine, alcohol, pesticides, solvents, amalgam-heavy metals are increasingly incriminated as causal factors for allergic disease. In the April, 2009, edition of the Journal of Medicine and Life, it states “The avoidance and elimination of such triggering factors [environmental toxins] before and during pregnancy and in early childhood may result in a significant decrease of the incidence of atopic [allergic] diseases.”
To avoid or limit ones environmental toxic exposure, it is good to become educated on the various “green” products that exist. It has become fairly easy now to find non-toxic cleaning agents, non- toxic and low VOC paints and varnishes, environmentally friendly garden pest control, etc. Spending time in natural areas like the seaside and in forests can help lessen the exposure of toxins from things like city traffic smog and industry.
The foods we choose to eat are what build up our bodies. Everything from muscle tone to the health of our immune system stem from a good well balanced diet. A recent study in the journal, Allergy, stated in its January 2010 edition that, “Higher maternal consumption of green and yellow vegetables, citrus fruit, and beta-carotene during pregnancy may be protective against the development of eczema in the offspring”. I truly believe that we cannot eat enough vegetables. They are where the majority of our vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and fiber come from, so everyone should, particularly those pregnant moms, eat lots of them!
Stressful events during pregnancy has also been indicated as a causative factor for allergic disease. A study of 3000 infants, published in the Journal of Investigational Allergology and Clinical Immunology found that, “stress-related maternal factors during pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of childhood eczema during the first 2 years of life”. Finding methods to alleviate ones stress during pregnancy is obviously very important. Walks in nature, listening to calming music, meditation, acupuncture, and anything else that helps relax a busy mind, can be very beneficial, not only to pregnant women, but also to the little being growing inside them.
In Chinese medicine allergic diseases, like atopic eczema, in a new born infant are attributed to fetal heat that is acquired during its stay in the mothers womb. Looking at all of the above causative factors makes sense in terms of understanding the development of this fetal heat, as all of them lead to some type of internal imbalance. Heat is just a reaction to this imbalance, a kind of cry for help from a body that is not functioning as well as it should.
To treat the imbalance of allergic diseases, like asthma and eczema, it becomes clearer that prevention is the best. But of course even by following the most dedicated preventative measures, these disorders can still manifest, and if they do I would say that Chinese herbal medicine still stands as the best method to alleviate them.
Dr Trevor Erikson
Copyright © 2019 Dr. Trevor Erikson