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Peanut allergy cured in majority of children in immunotherapy trial

theguardian.com

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Re: Peanut allergy cured in majority of children in immunotherapy trial

#101

Post by alextheparrot »

mljoe wrote: post #93
alextheparrot wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was in school, allergens were taught as follows (This also explains why people presumed it would fail): 1) Your body "sees" this, meaning it has antibodies that react to it 2) Cells whose antibodies are activated replicate, as they are recognizing something that is, to the body, presumably foreign and bad 3) Because you now have more cells after the originals replicated, the effects of the allergy worsen as yo…

IgG is usually implicated in fighting off pathogens like viruses and bacteria. It doesn't typically cause an allergic response. IgE is usually implicated in fighting off pathogens like parasitic worms or mosquito bites. It's the antibody that regularly get confused and binds to peanut proteins and pollen. There is speculation on why the IgE mediated immune response gets confused. One hypothesis is IgE evolved much mo…

I was unaware that IgE producing B cells transform to IgG after repeated exposure. My previous understanding was that IgE production was a terminal state and responded similarly to increased antigen on IgG presenting Bcells. The hygiene hypothesis makes a good bit more sense now, given that transformation.

Thanks for clarifying that.

Re: Peanut allergy cured in majority of children in immunotherapy trial

#102

Post by Damogran6 »

cst wrote: post #74

48 children were enrolled in the trial. Half of them were given the treatment and half the placebo, leaving 24 children in each group. Statistical significance testing is reported in the article and seems fairly robust, but this is too small a sample size to be fully confident in the results.

And did the 24 children in the placebo group die?

Re: Peanut allergy cured in majority of children in immunotherapy trial

#103

Post by ccleve »

giarc wrote: post #84
gehwartzen wrote: post #78

The AAP also recently changed its guidelines for introducing peanuts to babies based on a study [1] showing a pretty dramatic decline in the development of the allergy with early exposure vs total avoidance. [1] http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1414850#abstract

We've created this fear in parents that they must keep peanuts away from their child. My colleague wouldn't bring peanuts into the house with her first child and by age 3 her son still hadn't eaten peanut butter or any other peanut products. She wanted to introduce peanut butter to him and went as far as bringing him to the Children's Hospital emergency department and gave him a tiny amount of peanut butter while sit…

Instead of feeding our baby peanut butter, I smeared a small amount on his arm first. The skin got red and bubbled up. We took him in, got him tested, and found that he had the allergy.

Thank God I didn't feed it to him.

Re: Peanut allergy cured in majority of children in immunotherapy trial

#104

Post by jwineinger »

rhexs wrote: post #76
dperfect wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is especially confusing to me given the fact that immunotherapy (allergy shots) for hay fever has been used effectively since at least the 1930s[1]. I've heard that it may be due to the severity of a possible reaction to peanuts compared to that of (most cases of) hay fever, but I'm guessing that's probably not the full story. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allergen_immunotherapy

That's where my uncertainty comes from. I did the allergy immunotherapy for a few years, asked the Doc if they did anything like that for food allergies, and got the no, it doesn't work answer.

https://www.oit101.org/

Re: Peanut allergy cured in majority of children in immunotherapy trial

#105

Post by MichaelRenor »

What's amazing to me is that they used to recommend you don't give children any peanuts until a specific age, but then they learned that easily exposure actually dramatically decreases the chance of developing an allergy.

I feel like I have to throw away almost all advice they give us about kids these days. These types of things do a lot to undermine the advice of doctors.

Re: Peanut allergy cured in majority of children in immunotherapy trial

#107

Post by JohnTHaller »

wyldfire wrote: post #83
JohnTHaller wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is basically what most allergy treatments are. Start with 1/1000th of a peanut and gradually increase. It's a simple concept that's been used for nearly a century for other allergens. I did it for cat allergies over a decade ago. Developed them in college after growing up with cats. I have cats now.

I don't want to own cats but I would like to cope better with visiting cat-owners' homes. You seem to describe some sort of DIY immunotherapy for cat dander? Can you go into details?

Not DIY. I went to an allergist, found out what I was allergic to, then they inject you with gradually increasing amounts of what you're allergic to weekly in their office. There are risks, as you could have a bad reaction. If you do, you down 1/2 a bottle of Benadryl and go to the ER if necessary. I had one bad reaction in the 2 years I did shots and a double dose of Benadryl fixed it.

Re: Peanut allergy cured in majority of children in immunotherapy trial

#108

Post by upvotinglurker »

VeejayRampay wrote: post #21
nikolay wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this explains why the allergy was rare when yogurt used to be consumed daily in Bulgaria although I am not able to find reliable statistics and I'm basing this on anecdotal data.

Ah, so yogurt REALLY is a Bulgarian thing! In France, we've always had a slew of "Bulgarian taste" yogurts, which are usually slightly acidic in taste (and which I enjoy a lot) and I've always wondered if it was just a marketing thing or grounded in reality.

>In France, we've always had a slew of "Bulgarian taste" yogurts, which are usually slightly acidic in taste

In the US, I think this is being marketed as "Greek yogurt." (I don't like yogurt so no first hand experience, but in the last few years I've noticed many brands being advertised as "Greek", and as being more tangy and possibly more healthy/"natural")

Re: Peanut allergy cured in majority of children in immunotherapy trial

#109

Post by yerkan »

will_brown wrote: post #72
S_A_P wrote: post #39

My daughter has Celiac disease. It was diagnosed at age 4 when her growth chart showed she did not gain a single pound and grew ¼" from age 3-4. We did a biopsy of her small intestine and it was completely smooth. (Should be almost like velvet) Herblood levels also showed high sensitivity to gluten. We have her on a strict gluten free diet and she has since followed the growth chart perfectly. However she is sensitiv…

>From what I've read gut bacteria could be a contributor to gluten intolerance. It wouldn't surprise me, the human microbiome (which includes bacteria) out numbers cells in the human body something like 100:1. They call it the second brain and just reading about some of the studies should be eye opening to many. For example, some mental health issues can be treated through the stomach and alternatively certain gaster…

> It wouldn't surprise me, the human microbiome (which includes bacteria) out numbers cells in the human body something like 100:1.

Fake news! [1]

[1] https://www.nature.com/news/scientists-bust-myth-that-our-bo...

Re: Peanut allergy cured in majority of children in immunotherapy trial

#110

Post by YCode »

MichaelRenor wrote: post #105

What's amazing to me is that they used to recommend you don't give children any peanuts until a specific age, but then they learned that easily exposure actually dramatically decreases the chance of developing an allergy. I feel like I have to throw away almost all advice they give us about kids these days. These types of things do a lot to undermine the advice of doctors.

Not just these days... Not long ago breast milk was considered distasteful/inferior to formula and newborns were forced on their stomachs so they didn't choke to death on their own tongues/vomit.

The latter by the way led to a dramatic increase in incidents of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome causing us to roll out the "back to sleep" movement.

Many still disapprove of sleeping next to your baby despite it being as safe - safer in some instances - than sleeping in a crib and providing a protective effect against SIDS via the parents breathing/heartbeat as rhythm keeping and carbon dioxide that triggers regular breathing.

You basically have to take all parenting advice (even from a doctor) with a grain of salt and at the end of the day do what you as the child's guardian feel is best, especially because no one style or technique will work for all children.

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