Obesity - a promoter of allergy?

The prevalence of both obesity and allergy has been increasing throughout the world, leading to the hypothesis that the two are linked to one another. This overview summarizes the results of 34 studies from 2002 to 2012 that investigated a possible contributing effect of increasing body mass on the development and prevalence of various atopic diseases. Obesity was found to clearly affect bronchial asthma. However, the correlation was stronger in the nonatopic asthma phenotype. Obesity was found to be associated with the development of atopic dermatitis in children only. No clear association was found between obesity and the prevalence of allergic rhinitis or allergic conjunctivitis or increased sensitization to food allergens. This review sums up our study results and discusses a possible role of obesity in the promotion of allergy and asthma.