Impact of Climate Change on Dietary Nutritional Quality and Implications for Asthma and Allergy

Abstract

Asthma and allergic disorders are common in childhood with genetic and environmental determinants of disease that include prenatal nutritional exposures such as long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants. Global climate change is implicated in asthma and allergic disorder morbidity with potential mechanisms including perturbations of ecosystems. There is support that environmental and climatic changes such as increasing global temperate and carbon dioxide levels affect aquatic and agricultural ecosystems with subsequent alterations in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid availability and nutrient quality and antioxidant capacity of certain crops, respectively. This article discusses asthma epidemiology and the influence of global climate change.

Keywords: Allergic disorders; Antioxidants; Asthma; Children; Climate change; Long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids; Nutrition; Prenatal.