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New Peanut Allergy Drug Shows ‘Lifesaving’ Potential

nytimes.com

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Re: New Peanut Allergy Drug Shows ‘Lifesaving’ Potential

#41

Post by phkahler »

euphoria wrote: post #36
phkahler wrote: post #24

>> The goal of the treatment is not to cure the allergy or enable children to eat peanut butter sandwiches, but to reduce the risk that an accidental exposure to trace amounts will trigger a life-threatening reaction in someone with a severe allergy, and relieve the fear and anxiety that go along with severe peanut allergies. If ever a hedge a hedge there was, this is it: This works really well and they can eat a cou…

While true, as a parent of someone with a life-threatening milk allergy, I can tell you that even this seemingly minimal outcome were able to be reproduced with consistency, it would be life-changing for my family. The amount of time, anxiety, emotions, and medical payments involved with a life-threatening allergy is staggering. It does not seem that they are claiming this is dependable as a "cure", but they are clai…

...as a parent of someone with a life-threatening milk allergy...

I'm with you on that. I follow the links to every story like this and they're almost all the same - hope but no cure.

Re: New Peanut Allergy Drug Shows ‘Lifesaving’ Potential

#42

Post by retSava »

Steko wrote: post #21
raverbashing wrote: post #9

I'll make sure my kids eat (some) peanuts/peanut products before they develop an allergy.

Works in Israel, kids start eating light peanut snacks at 3 months and nut allergies are much rarer.

While anecdotally logical, it doesn't prove a causality and can be dangerous to blindly follow.

Re: New Peanut Allergy Drug Shows ‘Lifesaving’ Potential

#43

Post by phkahler »

chapium wrote: post #30
phkahler wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't call it medication. It's peanut protein plain and simple. People have done this gradually increasing exposure method on their own for years - though it can be dangerous to do so and is not recommended (I might try it myself, but would not have my child do it). It's not a big medical breakthrough, it's a highly controlled increasing dose of peanut protein.

According to Webster, Definition of medicine 1a : a substance or preparation used in treating disease I think taking a prescribed amount of peanut protein to treat this allergy fits that definition.

Sure, and some people who have gone through this eat a couple of reese's pieces each day for maintenance. I'm not kidding with that either. They don't call it medicine. That word in common usage carries a number of connotations that I don't think really apply in this case.

Re: New Peanut Allergy Drug Shows ‘Lifesaving’ Potential

#44

Post by retSava »

raverbashing wrote: post #9

I'll make sure my kids eat (some) peanuts/peanut products before they develop an allergy.

I was told that if one of the parents had asthma, or allergies, or eczema, the risk is higher that the child has one or several of those too. If that's the case, I really think you should reconsider or at least do it at a hospital.

In our case, both of us has/had all of the above, and our daughter did end up with it too. We don't have peanut allergies though, which she has. Curiously enough, she also reacts strongly to fish egg. Not fish itself, just the eggs (ie caviar, rom, etc). Shrimp and shrimp eggs are fine though.

I strongly remember the times she accidentally ate caviar. Took maybe a couple of seconds before she started screaming, saying her lips and mouth hurt, then vomiting like Linda Blair in the Exorcist. Quite scary. One of the times I hadn't cleaned the table good enough the night before when I was snacking on sandwiches with caviar. None visible, just must've missed some protein or so.

Re: New Peanut Allergy Drug Shows ‘Lifesaving’ Potential

#45

Post by gregmac »

kristianc wrote: post #32

Yeah - who'd have thought that exposure to an allergen in small amounts could help build up resistance to that allergen? The levels of peanut allergies correlates quite heavily with early-years education and parents freaking out about keeping schools and homes a nut-free zone.

We discovered my child's peanut allergy at around 8-9 months old, when she had barely-noticeable redness around her mouth the first time we gave peanut butter to her, followed by full-on hives the second time. She's been tested by an allergist a couple times since then, and still has a strong reaction.

Our home was not nut-free prior to that point, and obviously she did not attend school. Had we exposed her directly to peanuts earlier, would it have made a difference? Right now, no one knows because the underlying cause of these allergies is unknown. I have no allergies at all, and my wife has only seasonal allergies (ragweed for sure, maybe pollen).

So who'd have thought exposure to an allergen would help? Well when she was born the prevailing advice was explicit to avoid exposure in the first few months. That advice has reversed recently (and after my child was born), based on a study in 2015 [1]. There are still babies that get peanut allergies even when they're exposed at only a few months old, so it's not like this is fool-proof.

Maybe in a few years/decades the underlying cause of food allergies will be well understood, and we'll look back on this time in the same way we currently look back on the attitudes of smoking in the early 20th century.

[1] https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/new-guidelines-preventin...

Re: New Peanut Allergy Drug Shows ‘Lifesaving’ Potential

#46

Post by Steko »

retSava wrote: post #42
Steko wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Works in Israel, kids start eating light peanut snacks at 3 months and nut allergies are much rarer.

While anecdotally logical, it doesn't prove a causality and can be dangerous to blindly follow.

You could also make the counter argument: that it's more dangerous to 'blindly' ignore the huge disparity in nut allergy rates.

Re: New Peanut Allergy Drug Shows ‘Lifesaving’ Potential

#47

Post by le-mark »

Nasrudith wrote: post #16
raverbashing wrote: post #9

I'll make sure my kids eat (some) peanuts/peanut products before they develop an allergy.

I managed to develop one later in life in my twenties bizzarely.

I knew someone who's father developed one in their 50's. It is bizarre.

Re: New Peanut Allergy Drug Shows ‘Lifesaving’ Potential

#48

Post by ggm »

fnbr wrote: post #38
ggm wrote: post #3

Reading around, this and related OIT work on adults. At least one of the drugs in stage2 trials is also good for asthma. (etokimab) As a partner of somebody with severe nut anaphylaxis I'm heartened by the news but still watching from the sidelines

(I'm also the partner of someone with severe nut anaphylaxis.) Can you link me to anything? I was pretty discouraged by the result as the article explicitly says that the trial didn't work on adults: "The treatment was not effective in the small number of adults enrolled in the study."

https://www.foodallergy.org/about-fare/blog/update-on-immuno...

https://ir.anaptysbio.com/news-releases/news-release-details...

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