Are vitamins A and D important in the development of food allergy and how are they best measured?

Abstract

Food allergy has a dramatic impact on a child's (and their family's) quality of life and places a major financial burden on the community. It has been hypothesized that the increase in food allergy may relate to the concordant rise in prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency. More recently a second hypothesis has implicated vitamin A sufficiency in the development of immune tolerance. Together, these hypotheses have prompted investigation into the circulating levels of vitamins A and D in relation to food allergy prevalence. This review aims to examine the relationship between vitamins A and D and food allergy. The first part of this review presents the available epidemiological data which prop..