Austrian LEAD Study

It used to be commonly believed that anyone who develops an allergy to grass pollen as a child will remain allergic for life. A new study from Vienna fundamentally refutes this view.
Our data from the LEAD study (Lung, hEart, sociAl, body) at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Lung Health, the Faculty of Medicine at Sigmund Freud Private University Vienna and the Vienna Health Care Group have shown that: Allergic sensitisation is far more dynamic than previously thought. It can subside, fluctuate and even develop for the first time in later adulthood.
The findings have just been published in the renowned journal "Clinical and Translational Allergy".

📊 Excited to share a new publication

Integration of lung function in allostatic load scoring and its impact on mortality prediction
Mohammad Azizzadeh, Emiel F. M. Wouters, Ahmad Karimi, Daisy J. A. Janssen, Bart Spaetgens, Sylvia Hartl, Robab Breyer-Kohansal & Marie-Kathrin Breyer
Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-48880-x
Scientists from Austria’s LEAD cohort study just discovered something fascinating:
Researchers followed 8,775 adults and found that reduced lung function was one of the strongest indicators associated with higher mortality risk.
Integration of lung function into “allostatic load” scores, a measure of the body’s cumulative stress burden, significantly improved prediction of mortality risk.
The takeaway?
Your lungs may reflect far more than respiratory health.
They could act as an early warning system for whole-body aging and chronic physiological stress.

The Austrian LEAD (Lung, hEart, sociAl, boDy) study (NCT 01727518)
LEAD is the first longitudinal, single-centre, epidemiological study of the Austrian general population.