Nutritional Dermatology

Nutrition should be included in the diagnostic and treatment plans for most patients presenting with skin and hair disorders. Dermatologic symptoms may be caused by adverse food reactions or nutrient deficiency and inflammatory skin disease could ben- efit from nutritional support.

Adverse reactions to food is often divided into immunologic (food anaphylaxis and food allergy) and nonimmunologic (food intolerance and dietary indiscretion). food intoler- ance is again divided into metabolic food reaction, food poisoning, food idiosyncracy and pharmacologic reaction to food. it is suggested that adverse food reactions account for one to six percent of all dermatoses in general practice and that 10-49% of allergic responses in dogs and cats is caused by food allergy (1).

Adverse food reactions cause a wide variety of cutaneous lesions and should be a differ- ential diagnosis in any pruritic condition in dogs and cats. in dogs, there is no gender or breed predisposition and though it may be mostly diagnosed in young dog (less than a year) it is also seen in older animals. Dogs typically present with a nonseasonal pruritic dermatitis sometimes accompanied with gastrointestinal symptoms. in cats diagnosed with adverse food reactions there is no gender predisposition and as for dogs the majority develops symptoms in a young age (less than two years) while it can be diag- nosed in older cats. Siamese cats may be predisposed. in cats, Dermatologic symptoms vary in presentation and severity including miliary dermatitis, scaling dermatoses, severe generalized pruritus and eosinophilic skin disease (1).

Risk factors for adverse food reactions are unknown but certain foods or food ingredi- ents may more easily elicit a response and any disease that increases intestinal mucosal permeability may prompt reactions. further, it is suggested that genetic predisposition and selective iga deficiency predispose to adverse food reactions. [...]