Your Birthday May Play A Role In Whether You Suffer From Allergies

Scientists have long noticed a strange correlation between when we're born and how likely it is that we'll experience certain health problems, including allergies.   Thanks to an international team of researchers, we now can at least partly explain how this happens: The season you were born in can leave certain "markers" on your DNA that may influence your health, said Dr. John Holloway, professor of allergy and respiratory genetics at the University of Southampton in England and a co-author of the new study. "If we can go on to identify what it is about season of birth that causes these changes, this could potentially be modifiable, allowing the development of preventative strategies for allergies," he told The Huffington Post. For the study, which was published in the journal Allergy on Tuesday, researchers scanned DNA samples from 367 18-year-olds who were born on the Isle of Wight in England. They analyzed specific markers, called DNA methylation, in the samples, and examined whether different markers could be associated with what time of year a person was born and whether they suffer from any allergic diseases, including asthma and eczema. The researchers then measured how susceptible each person was to developing such allergies and noted which participants reported suffering from hay fever, asthma or eczema when they were 1, 4, 10, and 18 years old, Live Science reported. It turns out that we carry certain DNA markers into adulthood -- and ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news