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New Immunotherapy Trial Cures Kids of Peanut Allergy For Up To Four Years (theguardian.com)
Using a new kind of immunotherapy treatment, Australian researchers have managed to cure a majority of the children in their study suffering from a peanut allergy. "The desensitization to peanuts persisted for up to four years after treatment," reports The Guardian. From the report: Tang, an immunologist and allergist, pioneered a new form of treatment that combines a probiotic with peanut oral immunotherapy, known as PPOIT. Instead of avoiding the allergen, the treatment is designed to reprogram the immune system's response to peanuts and eventually develop a tolerance. It's thought that combining the probiotic with the immunotherapy gives the immune system the "nudge" it needs to do this, according to Tang. Forty-eight children were enrolled in the PPOIT trial and were randomly given either a combination of the probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus with peanut protein in increasing amounts, or a placebo, once daily for 18 months. At the end of the original trial in 2013, 82% of children who received the immunotherapy treatment were deemed tolerant to peanuts compared with just 4% in the placebo group. Four years later, the majority of the children who gained initial tolerance were still eating peanuts as part of their normal diet and 70% passed a further challenge test to confirm long-term tolerance. The results have been published in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.
Four years later, the majority of the children who gained initial tolerance were still eating peanuts as part of their normal diet and 70% passed a further challenge test to confirm long-term tolerance.
That sounds much better than "up to four years". Very refreshing to see a headline that understates research results :)
nobody had a peanut allergy.
Peanut allergies are a first world problem. They are rare in developing countries, where kids grow up around chickens, pigs, and goats, so they develop strong immune systems that don't overreact. In China and Vietnam, peanuts are a very common ingredient, and kids eat them everyday. Yet in America, it is the kids of neurotic Asian mothers who have the worst problems with allergies. My kid's elementary school has a "peanut free" zone, and 90% of the kids who eat there are either Chinese or Vietnamese.
This is important to understand. Practically all peanut allergies are like yours. People with the severe trace of nuts in the room equals death level allergy are extremely rare. Even they can be (carefully) de-sensitized enough to make casual contact harmless.
I blame the liberals. Seriously. They raised entire generations that overreact to everything.
Really? Peanut allergies are political now? I find it amazing that so many conservatives seem to find a way to blame liberalism for anything that annoys them. That is called scapegoating and it says more about you than it does about them. I coach a high school sports team and I can assure you that conservative parents are just as obnoxious and over-reaction prone as liberal ones. I deal with both routinely and it has NOTHING to do with their political bent.