Eating peanuts helps cure peanut allergy

A study suggests a new immunotherapy may help people with peanut allergy to overcome the allergic reaction in a matter of several months.

Researchers at Cambridge University Hospitals found giving children with peanut allergy a small amount of peanuts to eat daily over a period of several months boosts their tolerance to peanuts and temper the allergy reactions.

A health observer who was not involved in the study cautioned that food consumers should not try this approach at home.

Peanut allergy along with other tree nut allergy affects an estimated 3.3 million Americans and sends possibly thousands of people to emergency room each year.

For the study, Dr. Andrew Clark and colleagues gave a group of 23 children allergic to peanuts a small amount of peanuts to eat each day.  The dose increased every two weeks starting with 1 mg until the children could eat five peanuts without a severe reaction.

After six weeks, 91 percent of children with peanut allergy were able to eat at least five peanuts every day without any allergic reaction.  After six months, 19 could tolerate 32 peanuts.

Food allergy triggered by ingestion of cow's milk, fish, egg, shellfish, soybeans, and wheat cause 30,000 cases of anaphylaxis, 2,000 hospitalizations and 150 deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Symptoms of food allergy include hives, tingling in the mouth, swelling in the tongue and throat, difficulty breathing, abdominal cramps, vomiting or diarrhea, eczema or rash, coughing or wheezing, loss of consciousness and dizziness.

By Jimmy Downs

Photo courtesy of wikipedia