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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

#151

Post by rconti »

makmanalp wrote: post #138
0xbear wrote: post #133

True story: in Russia (and I can only assume other Eastern European countries) peanut allergy is so rare that I've never even heard of it until I emigrated. Pollen allergy is about the same, ragweed pollen allergy can be really bad too. But not peanut allergy.

I've wondered too. Very similarly in Turkey - growing up I'd never even heard of anyone with serious allergies to anything really, except perhaps seasonal allergies, which mostly meant a runny nose. Certainly I'd never seen an epi-pen in my life, and no allergies people took serious medication or did immunotherapy for. Do we have a proper explanation for this? edit: one study citing a need for more data: https://www.…

I had never heard of it, either, growing up in the US in the 80s and 90s. Certainly it is far more prevalent now than it was back then.

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

#152

Post by cst »

nucleardog wrote: post #125
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.

Of 24 children treated, apparently 20 of them were successfully treated. The control group only saw one person's allergy diminish during the initial treatment period. I'll freely admit I don't have a background in statistics or clinical trial design, but it seems to me with that significant of an effect you can be fairly confident in the results even at that trial size. If we were talking 8% to 4% in 24-person groups…

I agree that 82% to 4% seems pretty robust. However, larger data sets are more robust to potential flaws in experimental implementation.

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

#153

Post by blakeholl »

ccleve wrote: post #103
giarc wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My son has a peanut allergy which manifested in the same way. We were then told to have a component test done on his blood to determine which proteins he was actually allergic. It was explained that some are more commonly related to anaphylaxis while others tend to just cause rashes, etc. He ended up testing positive to one that is considered "bad", and he has been in OIT for awhile. So far so good - but I recently heard of a child doing the same with milk OIT and the child passed away. Very scary stuff.

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

#154

Post by JohnTHaller »

BenjiWiebe wrote: post #113
JohnTHaller wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Nowadays some immunotherapy clinics require you to have an EpiPen along or they refuse to give you your shot. Source: currently getting immunotherapy shots

This was over a decade ago and in NYC, so it was basically impossible for me to be alone or far from a hospital within 30 minutes of getting a shot. When I started to feel the reaction coming on, I had plenty of time to grab my bottle of Benadryl out of my bag and take a couple swigs while I was walking down the sidewalk. I'd wager it looked interesting to other NYers.

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

#155

Post by philsnow »

ashark wrote: post #91
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

Huh. My wife and I deliberately did the opposite of the "avoid exposure to allergens (especially nuts)" guidelines for kids because it seemed like obviously ass-backwards, stupid advice, considering that rates of kids with serious food allergies seemed to have gone up like 10x under those guidelines vs. when we were kids and everyone just fed their kids peanut butter (and everything else) ASAP and serious food allerg…

> [we] did the opposite of the [...] guidelines [...] because it seemed like obviously ass-backwards, stupid advice

> Looks like we guessed right on this one.

You conclude that the advice is wrong because of your sample size of however many kids you have?

You didn't explicitly say "our kids" but merely "kids"; God help you if you feed nuts to other peoples' kids based off your conclusion.

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

#156

Post by jjjensen90 »

jerf wrote: post #121
nibstwo wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Mine were mostly cognitive. I mean, when I was a kid I had no tooth enamel (had to have surgery to install fake teeth) and puked up everything I ate that had wheat in it, but somehow no one diagnosed it until later. I just assumed it was normal but my symptoms were migraines, anxiety, stomach bloating, joint pain, hair loss, stunted growth, constant fatigue, sleep apnea, nutrient deficiencies, malabsorption. It t…

"I shudder to consider eating a full bun or something but I haven't tried in years." I have it nowhere near as bad as you (which is why it went undiagnosed until I was 30... although it's still pretty bad). But for about 5 years after I found out I would have recurring dreams where I would be eating a hamburger and realize after swallowing "Oh, crap, that's a normal bun!" I suppose in some sense that might qualify as…

I also have Celiac disease, somewhat less severe than nibstwo, and I also have recurring dreams where I eat something (usually pizza) and midway through realize it is made with wheat dough. This was further compounded when once I ate a package of vegetarian chicken wings (made of wheat gluten) which was mislabeled at the grocery store (gluten free tag on the price label) and next to veggie burgers by the same brand with the same packaging where ARE gluten free and I had eaten before without a problem... I was sick for about a week, couldn't work or think straight. I won't make that mistake twice!

Another funny angle--I also have Type 1 diabetes (diagnosed when I was 9) and for a long time after diagnosis I had dreams about drinking a 64oz soda only to realize it wasn't diet, and panicking since I would probably be in DKA soon after!

Maybe there is some immune system disease/nightmare link that has gone undiscovered :)

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

#157

Post by ashark »

philsnow wrote: post #155
ashark wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh. My wife and I deliberately did the opposite of the "avoid exposure to allergens (especially nuts)" guidelines for kids because it seemed like obviously ass-backwards, stupid advice, considering that rates of kids with serious food allergies seemed to have gone up like 10x under those guidelines vs. when we were kids and everyone just fed their kids peanut butter (and everything else) ASAP and serious food allerg…

> [we] did the opposite of the [...] guidelines [...] because it seemed like obviously ass-backwards, stupid advice > Looks like we guessed right on this one. You conclude that the advice is wrong because of your sample size of however many kids you have? You didn't explicitly say "our kids" but merely "kids"; God help you if you feed nuts to other peoples' kids based off your conclusion.

Did you read the linked page? Or google for how recommendations re: feeding kids peanuts have changed since 2015? We concluded the advice was wrong because very few of our peers in school had food allergies, but now a crazy percentage of the kids who've grown up under the no-peanuts-for-kids-or-even-for-pregnant-women advice are allergic to peanuts. And it turns out we got that one right.

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

#158

Post by gojomo »

gehwartzen wrote: post #111
Icedcool wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I understand is that no, because the probiotic is just a digestive support and used in the study as being a 'supportive' agent. The real actionable item is adding the allergen intentionally and increasing the dose over time.

That's not entirely true. The study itself lists several previous works that only introduced the peanut allergen in varying amount over time. The results of those studies show that yes the body increasingly builds antibodies while the allergen is introduced but those effects diminish rapidly after the treatment is stopped. The importance of this work is that with the simultaneous introduction of this bacteria the eff…

It still would have been nice if they'd done a control group, an allergen-only group, and an allergen-and-probiotic group – all from the exact same initial randomization and using the exact same administration/follow-through practices. That would have best quantified what, if any, added benefit the probiotic creates.

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

#159

Post by sethammons »

js2 wrote: post #41
sethammons wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Several years ago, I developed a bad allergic reaction to mango. Hyper sensitive skin that will rash and welt with the slightest irritation, such as sitting in a car and wearing a seat belt. This will last for over a month. I carry an EpiPen in case my throat swells shut. I know allergies can come and go, so I may no longer be allergic, but I dare not find out.

Mango skin has a similar allergen as that in poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac. My sister cannot touch the skin w/o getting a rash. However, if it's already peeled she can eat it w/o issue. I understand this is not uncommon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango#Potential_for_contact_de...

Of this I was aware, and thanks for bringing it up for general knowledge! For me, oddly, I can walk through poison oak no problem, as long as I don't have an open cut. Near a cut, the area will get all "poison-oaky" and rash and itch still.

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

#160

Post by S_A_P »

nibstwo wrote: post #89
S_A_P wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for this- it sounds like I need to do some more research to completely understand whats going on, but this is very helpful. If you dont mind my asking, are your symptoms mostly GI related? Ive heard others can have symptoms that manifest in things like sinuses getting plugged up or skin rashes. Also sounds like a drug similar to Humara may be something that could provide at least some relief to the immune resp…

No. Mine were mostly cognitive. I mean, when I was a kid I had no tooth enamel (had to have surgery to install fake teeth) and puked up everything I ate that had wheat in it, but somehow no one diagnosed it until later. I just assumed it was normal but my symptoms were migraines, anxiety, stomach bloating, joint pain, hair loss, stunted growth, constant fatigue, sleep apnea, nutrient deficiencies, malabsorption. It t…

Thanks for sharing. Those symptoms sound quite horrific. My daughter had some similar symptoms as well. She had 4 cavities when she was 3. I think she was too young at the time to articulate how she felt but I know she also had some cognitive difficulties(and is only now just getting caught up to grade level despite being a VERY EARLY talker and having a large vocabulary for a toddler)
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