Hope over peanut allergy 'cure'

[dipsydoodle]

A group of children with peanut allergies have had their condition effectively cured, doctors believe.

A team from Cambridge's Addenbrooke's Hospital exposed four children to peanuts over a six-month period, gradually building up their tolerance.

By the end the children were eating the equivalent of five peanuts a day.

It is the first time a food allergy has been desensitised in such a way, although a longer-term follow up is now needed to confirm the findings.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7899383.stm

[Sherman A1]

1. That's Great

I hope it works......

I am a long time sufferer of peanut allergy and it's nothing to screw around with.

One bite or anything peanut and I am off to the hospital.

[dipsydoodle]

2. I have concluded

that for whatever reason such allergies are age related. I'm 65 and have no recollection of any school chums suffering from peanut allergy or any others come to that. My daughter is nearly 40 and has a number of food intolerances. I asked her this morning what difference age groups may make. She believes the issue to be associated with cessation of eating only fresh food, due to our ability ot refridgerate or freeze and increased use of additives and substitutes over the period since the early sixties whereby changes in our eating habits went way beyond those which occured over the preceeding 10000 years or so i.e our bodies ceased to be able to adapt to those accelerated changes.

She quoted as an example Aspartame which she avoids all costs : http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-side-effects.html

[trotsky]

4. That's a possible theory, but I think what's more likely...

is our much more widespread exposure to different food sources today. A hundred years ago, virtually all the food you ate was local. You really didn't have much choice. Now exotic fruit can be flown to us in a day. Maybe there is a spice, flavoring, or food with a protein profile similar to peanuts that "primes" the immune system to react like it does. There is also work being done to analyze what pregnant moms eat that might trigger peanut allergies (and other food allergies) in their babies.

[Dorian Gray]

7. That makes sense

though I also wonder (I have no stats... it's just from my own speculation) whether all the restrictions we place on what children an eat these days allows for their bodies to not build some sort of allergic resistance to certain foods.

[trotsky]

8. Hold on a minute... not sure I'm following you.

I know my kids eat a lot more different foods than I did growing up. About the only thing I ate that they don't is tater tots deep fried in recycled bacon and hamburger grease. Yum yum. :P Is that what you mean about "restrictions" ?

[Dorian Gray]

10. No...

my friends don't introduce cow's milk to their kids until they're over a year. Peanuts and other nuts until much much later. When I was young, I remember my mother feeding my brother peanut butter off a spoon when he was still quite young. I don't think that parents do that today until the children are at least three. (That's the recommendation by the Academy of American Pediatrics, at least.) I don't think that was an issue when I was younger, and I wonder if keeping children from eating peanuts might lead to allergic reactions when they are introduced to them.

[Why Syzygy]

11. So, they feed them GMO soy through the first year? nt

[trotsky]

3. This would be a fantastic development.

It is such a useful, nutritious, and widespread food that having any allergy - let alone the severe reaction most sufferers do - is a terrible thing.

I hope too they figure out where the allergy comes from, so we can hopefully prevent it.

[rocktivity]

5. Very exciting news

I've read about a 15-year old dying after kissing her boyfriend who'd eaten peanut butter five hours earlier. And I've read about a child who lost consciousness after another child dropped one peanut on her head. It's a terrible business. CUE THE VONAGE THEME!

:woohoo:
rocktivity

[Dorian Gray]

6. Isn't that the theory

behind eating local honey or pollens for allergies? To introduce your body to local allergens so that you can overcome them?

[uppityperson]

9. Also why people get allergy injections.

Small exposures help your body develop the ability to deal with more exposures.