The role of diet in atopic dermatitis

Atopic dermatitis has become interesting health problem and continues to present significant therapeutic challenges for scientists. Treatment with pharmacological therapy is often not satisfied for doctors and patients. It leads to look for alternative methods as complementary and supportive therapy to conventional treatment. One of the possibilities is intake of a specific diet. The subject of diet and dermatitis has been studied for decades. Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a genetic, chronic, inflammatory skin disease. It is the most common skin disease occurring in children, but it can also affect adults. The pathogenesis of AD is complex, the most important being a genetic defect leading to loss of function of proteins important for maintaining the epidermal barrier. Dysfunction of the skin barrier and impaired immune tolerance probably underlie the pathogenesis when AD coexists with food allergy. A variety of skin reactions can be triggered by food which often appear with atopic lesions and cause diagnostic difficulties. Patients with eczema believe that dietary ingredients are the cause of AD symptoms. Finally, they exclude suspect foods and follow restrictive elimination diets. The aim of the current review is to present the state of knowledge regarding the influence of nutrition on atopic dermatitis and to investigate if diet exclusion can exacerbate or alleviate AD symptoms.