Conference Proceedings

Food allergies are a growing health epidemic, with population-based surveys in the USA estimating that up to 8% of children and 11% of adults are now living with a food allergy. During the 1990s and early 2000s, international guidelines recommended the avoidance of commonly problematic food during infancy due to the belief that early introduction of these foods may increase the risk of allergies. However, beginning with the publication of the LEAP trial in 2015,3 a paradigm shift in the understanding of food allergy prevention has occurred. Clinical guidelines now generally recommend the introduction of potentially allergenic food after 4–6 months of exclusive breastfeeding. This symposium occurred during the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) Congress, 2022 and discussed early allergen introduction and food allergy prevention.

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 15 million babies are born too early every year. That is more than 1 in 10 babies and this number is rising.

The growing global prevalence of allergy, particularly among children, poses a major public health problem and multipronged approaches for allergy prevention are under active investigation, focusing on key periods during pregnancy and early infancy.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which includes non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), are highly prevalent diseases associated with an increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Obesity/overweight and dietary intake are important risk factors.

The Ominous Quartet’ represents four glycaemic disorders at the centre of cardiovascular diseases in diabetes, including ambient hyperglycaemia, glycaemic variability (GV), postprandial glucose (PPG) excursions, and hypoglycaemic episodes. It is important to understand the interrelationship between these disorders, targets and thresholds for monitoring purposes, and impact on cardiovascular outcomes.

Visceral or intra-organ fat (VIF) accumulation may be a better indication of cardiovascular and metabolic disease risk than BMI. The link with increased disease risk may be through dysfunctional adiposity, leading to excess ectopic fat deposition and hence inflammatory and adipokine dysregulation, insulin resistance, and atherogenic dyslipidaemia.

Cognitive impairment is considered one of the greatest challenge for health and social care in the XXIst century. Due to reduction of premature death and increasing life expectancy, the prevalence of cognitive impairment is expected to increase both in high income and medium-low income countries.

As more and more baby-boomers are now reaching retirement age the consequences of the current demographic shift will gain momentum during the next decade thereby exerting increasing pressure on the social systems of most Western Countries and especially on the health care sector. In this context the prevention of loss of autonomy and care dependency will be utmost importance