So many people with celiac disease seem to have other food intolerances and allergies that I thought I should post this exciting news. At last week’s meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, two recent studies presented their findings that some children with peanut allergies can become progressively less allergic to peanuts under medical supervision. 3.3 million people in the U.S. have peanut or tree nut allergies, and nearly half of all U.S. deaths from food allergies are caused by peanuts, so this is a very big deal.
From the NYTimes article:
“The new treatment uses doses of peanuts that start as small as one-thousandth of a peanut and eventually increase to about 15 peanuts a day. In a pilot study at Duke University and Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, 33 children with documented peanut allergy have received the daily therapy, which is given as a powder sprinkled on food. Most of the children are tolerating the therapy without developing allergic reactions, and five stopped the treatment after two and a half years because they could now tolerate peanuts in their regular diet. But four children dropped out because they could not tolerate the treatment.
In a related study of just 18 children, the researchers gave the treatment to 12 children and a placebo powder to 6. After 10 months, the children were given a medically supervised test exposing them to peanuts. In the placebo group, the children developed symptoms after ingesting the equivalent of one and a half peanuts. In the treatment group, the children tolerated 15 peanuts without symptoms.”
All you need to know? Parents should not try this on their own. More studies are needed and this sort of treatment can only be done under close medical supervision because peanut allergies can be really dangerous. But an excellent beginning has been made!
