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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.
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.
Part of why it seems like such a huge first world problem is the gross over-reaction to "casual" allergy to protect a few hyper-allergics. I'm allergic to peanuts. I don't care if you eat a peanut bar in the adjacent seat or if the kitchen used the same spoon. Hell, I could eat that peanut bar and though it might cause me a bit of discomfort it wouldn't actually be dangerous. But if I tell anyone I have peanut allergy that tends to invoke "faint traces of nuts = lethal danger" levels of paranoia. Don't get me wrong, they exist and it's nice that we accomodate them so they don't die or anything but you sometimes feel those with a common cold and ebola are put in the same box labeled "sick".
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
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.
You know what else "cures" a peanut "allergy?"
Peanuts.
Desensitization works for peanut allergies nearly 100% of the time. In fact, isolation from allergens typically only makes allergies worse. I had a peanut allergy as an infant. I almost died once according to my parents. My mom, being a well-educated and smart woman, ignored the idiot doctor's orders to keep me away from all things peanut (doctors only say this to cover their asses, there is no medical research that supports evasive therapy for allergies) and instead would put a tiny amount of peanut on my lip every day. I would break out in hives at first, but after a couple of months, my reactions went away.
Now I eat peanut butter all the time and I have my mom to thank. Since learning of this when I was old enough to understand, I've never avoided allergens - and I've never had allergies of any kind, to anything.
BTW, if anyone tells you their kid will die at the slightest contact with something peanut, they're lying. Nobody is that allergic to peanuts. It's all in their heads.
The kids were given a skin prick test with peanut allergen before and after the treatments. Only the kids who no longer reacted to the allergen would have been told they could eat peanuts. Kids who still reacted would have been told they still had to avoid peanuts.
So yes, it's just you misunderstanding how clinical trials work.
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.