Peanut Allergy News

Peanut-eating prevents allergy?

2008-11-10T08:31:00.001-07:00

In the United States, the number of children allergic to peanuts has doubled in 10 years, reaching nearly three million.

Until recently, U.S. doctors recommended that women who are pregnant or breastfeeding avoid peanuts and not feed them to young kids.

But this apparently hasn't helped. Studies have shown eliminating food allergens at this time doesn't prevent an allergy from developing.

Now, a new study suggests it may be peanut-eating, not peanut avoidance, that prevents an allergy.

Philadelphia Enquirer

Eliminating allergy causing proteins

2008-07-15T09:43:00.001-06:00

UGA researchers aim to change the peanut itself, eliminating some of the proteins that trigger the allergy.

[...]

If all the proteins in a peanut that can cause allergic reactions were eliminated, the resulting peanut plant could not grow, said Ozias-Akins, who has been researching peanut allergies for six years.

Ozias-Akins hopes to develop a peanut minus three of the proteins that cause the most problems.

OnlineAthens

Alexander the Elephant childrens DVDs

2008-02-18T07:24:00.004-07:00

The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) is proud to announce the release of two animated DVDs that both entertain and educate children about food allergies. Alexander, the Elephant Who Couldn't Eat Peanuts ... Goes to School and Alexander, the Elephant Who Couldn't Eat Peanuts ... Gets a Babysitter help children cope with their own allergies and teach other children about tolerance. Both videos combine colorful animation with interviews of real-life children with food allergies who talk about their experiences.

[...]

The first Alexander video, Alexander the Elephant Who Couldn't Eat Peanuts, introduced youngsters to Alexander 10 years ago. It was an engaging award winner that won critical acclaim from young viewers, parents, and educators. Children watched it over and over. That video spun off a series of books featuring Alexander and his friends, which has won its own awards. To date, there are 13 books in the series that examine how children with food allergies can stay safe while going out to eat, attending school, riding on an airplane, and going to a birthday party. All are beautifully illustrated in full color and are written for children ages 2 through 7 years.

[...]

Alexander DVDs can be ordered at http://www.foodallergy.org/ or (800) 929-4040.

Earthtimes

Battle of the genes

2007-12-30T22:51:00.000-07:00

A breakthrough discovery will bring a new generation of drugs that target the cause rather than just the symptoms, scientists say.

A hay fever cure could be available within two years, they claim. Treatments for other allergies – including asthma and potentially fatal peanut intolerances – would follow.

Scientists identified a “battle of the genes”, with allergies coming on if the wrong “side” wins. They hope the discovery will help them find a way to re-programme allergy cells.

Daily Express

Anti-anaphylaxis pill?

2007-11-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

The prospect of a pill that could cut the risk that a child with peanut allergy is killed by an extreme allergic response is raised today.

[...]

Now Dr Kirk Druey of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Bethesda, and colleagues report that they have found a protein that suppresses anaphylactic shock, when an allergic response triggers a quick release of substances from special immune cells found in tissues, called mast cells, that can lead to these deadly effects.

Dr Druey said this find will provide basic insights into how to damp down this deadly response, by gene therapy or a small drug molecule to mimic the effects of this protein. However, he emphasised that, though potentially significant, it would take some years to do.

Telegraph.co.uk

Risk of soy

2007-11-13T13:36:00.000-07:00

Children with peanut allergies are at risk of severe reactions from soy, including death, and should strictly avoid anything containing this widespread ingredient. That is what the parents of 13-year old Emily Vonder Meulen warned after reading the cover article,”Kids and the Growing Food Allergy Threat” in the current issue of Newsweek.

[...]

"Soy has been significantly underestimated as a cause of food anaphylaxis" Dr. Daniel continues. "As early as 1999 in the journal Allergy, Swedish researchers reported that four children died after eating a minuscule amount of soy 'hidden' in hamburgers.

The Swedish National Food Administration quickly warned parents and pediatricians of the soy-peanut link and stated that children with a combination of peanut allergy and asthma are at highest risk. Additional risk factors include other food allergies, a family history of peanut or soy allergies, a diagnosis of asthma, rhinitis or eczema, or a family history of those diseases.

"Tragically, the Swedish warning has not been publicized here in the U.S. As a result, more children have died," says Dr. Daniel.

NewsWireRelease.com

Allergen-free peanuts

2007-07-24T07:50:00.000-06:00

An agricultural researcher at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has developed a simple process to make allergen-free peanuts. The new process – believed to be a first for food science – could provide relief to millions of peanut allergy sufferers, and be an enormous boon to the entire peanut industry.

Doug Speight of the N.C. A&T Office of Outreach and Technology Transfer said food companies are showing a strong interest in licensing the process, which does not degrade the taste or quality of treated peanuts, and might even render them easier to process for use as a food ingredient.

EurekAlert

Peanut allergy is misdiagnosed in many children

2007-05-17T09:25:00.000-06:00

Many children are erroneously told they have a peanut allergy because the standard skin-prick test is not accurate enough, a new study suggests.

[...]

A child who develops a hive measuring 8 millimetres or more is allergic to peanuts, according to the diagnostic cut-off level.

However, only 67% of those in the study with hives measuring between 8 and 10 mm, proved to be allergic when given peanut to eat under hospital supervision. The test only became 100% accurate when the hive measured 15 mm or more.

[...]

“For many with a positive result on the skin-prick test, it would be worth doing a peanut challenge in a hospital environment,” Wainstein says.

NewScientist.com

Food Allergy Awareness Week

2007-05-11T05:25:00.000-06:00

This upcoming week, May 13-19, is 10th Annual Food Allergy Awareness Week. I encourage people affected by allergies to let others know and those not directly affected to acquaint themselves on how they can help.

Good resources include Check My Tag and The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network.

Allergy passed in blood transfusion

2007-05-01T08:36:00.000-06:00

A woman suffered a life-threatening reaction after being given blood from another patient with a peanut allergy.

It is believed to be the first time a severe food allergy has passed from one person to another through donated blood.

scotsman.com

Harry & David recall

2007-04-17T07:51:00.000-06:00

Harry & David have issued a recall on candies because they may contain undeclared nuts, including peanuts.

Avoiding peanuts during pregnancy

2007-03-27T07:38:00.000-06:00

Many women appear to have been unnecessarily avoiding peanuts during pregnancy, a study from a research centre specialising in allergies has found.

The research by Dr Tara Dean at The David Hide Asthma and Allergy Research Centre suggests that many women without a family history of atopy have been giving up peanuts during pregnancy and breast-feeding.

Yet Department of Health guidelines issued in 1998 advised only women with a family history of atopy, which is manifested in asthma, eczema or hay fever, to avoid the nuts.

As many as 65 per cent of all mothers have avoided peanuts during pregnancy, despite the fact that only a small proportion are at risk of sensitising their babies, the research found.

Moreover, there did not seem to be a link between the children whose mothers had avoided peanuts during pregnancy and those who later developed a peanut allergy.

Bounty

Oral immunotherapy may not be a cure

2007-03-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

An oral immunotherapy regimen can help take the sting out of severe peanut allergies, reported investigators here.

Five of seven children with severe peanut allergy were able, after two years of immunotherapy, to tolerate a dose of 7.8 grams of peanut flour, equivalent to eating more than 13 peanuts, reported Scott David Nash, M.D., of Duke in Durham, N.C., and colleagues.

Yet while oral immunotherapy can desensitize patients to peanuts, children who undergo it may not be in the clear, cautioned the authors in a featured poster session at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology here.

"We think that our patients are now at decreased risk for anaphylaxis if they have accidental ingestion [of peanuts], but we're not recommending that our patients reintroduce peanuts into their diets, and all patients were on peanut-elimination diets during the study," said Dr. Nash.

MedPage Today

Cadbury Easter eggs recalled

2007-02-12T16:46:00.000-07:00

Cadbury is recalling chocolate Easter eggs in Scotland.

the products were being recalled because they were unsafe for people with nut allergies and had not been correctly labelled (scotsman.com)

No idea if this affects other countries.

Children's book

2007-01-22T14:43:00.000-07:00

Your peanut allergic child must ultimately learn to keep themselves safe. Educating those around your child about peanut allergies and what an allergic reaction entails is the first step. It could save your child’s LIFE!

“Allie” teaches children (and adults) about allergic reactions, how peanuts hide in the most unsuspecting foods and helps everyone understand the severity of food allergies.

"Allie" is a wonderful book written about the perils and triumphs of an elephant that tells her life story of what it is like to live with peanut allergies. The book is geared towards educating pre-school through 3rd grade children, and has helped many adults understand peanut allergies as never before. (allergicchild.com)

Purchase from Amazon.

Peanut gene

2007-01-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

[R]esearchers from the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences may have taken an important first step toward creating a non-allergenic peanut.

The researchers have found that one of the allergenic proteins in peanuts is sometimes produced with a portion missing—resulting in a form that apparently doesn’t trigger a bad reaction by human immune systems.

“If we can somehow breed or create a peanut where all the allergenic proteins are in forms that are as benign as this one, that would be a big step for making life much easier for the millions of people who are sensitive—sometimes deathly so—to a substance that the rest of us like to eat so much that it’s virtually everywhere,” said Maria Gallo, a plant molecular biologist who conducted the research with her graduate student, Il-Ho Kang. Their work has been published online by the journal Plant Science and will appear in an upcoming issue of the publication.

Peanuts are known for being loaded with protein, but over the years scientists have reported about 20 types of protein molecules that seem to trigger an overblown immune response in those with peanut sensitivities. The three that cause the most problems are dubbed Ara h 1, Ara h 2 and Ara h 3.

The latter, however, sometimes shows up in a form that’s slightly different than that found in most peanuts. This altered protein has been named Ara h 3-im. The UF researchers extracted peanut proteins and exposed them to blood drawn from two people who are allergic to peanuts and one who isn’t.

The normal form of the protein set off a severe reaction in the samples from the allergenic patients, but Ara h 3-im produced none—showing that the patients’ immune defenses didn’t recognize this altered protein.

[...]

In the end, building a better peanut might not need to be the ultimate goal. Understanding why the human immune system doesn’t overreact to this particular form of protein could play a vital role in other efforts to protect those with peanut sensitivities, such as efforts to create a peanut allergy vaccine.

University of Florida News

Seven year study to begin in UK

2007-01-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

It is currently not clear how to prevent peanut allergy. Some studies suggest that peanut avoidance in early infancy may help to prevent allergy, whereas other research suggests the opposite may be true. Research led by Professor Gideon Lack of the MRC-Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma at King's College London and Imperial College London has been comparing peanut allergies in different parts of the world.

"In some countries we have found an inverse association between consumption of peanuts in the first year of life and the development of peanut allergy," explained Professor Lack of King's College London. "Recent evidence suggests that children who eat peanut snacks early in life may in fact be protected against peanut allergy, in contrast with previous studies which have suggested the opposite."

Professor Lack's team will now carry out a randomised, controlled 7 year study involving 480 infants between the ages of 4 and 11 months. The infants will already have eczema or egg allergy and be at a high-risk of developing peanut allergy. They will be randomised into two groups: the interventional group will receive a peanut snack regularly from four months of age for the first three years of life, whereas the control group will completely avoid peanuts. Both groups will be assessed for peanut allergy at five years of age.

Media Newswire

Airlines & "peanut-free zones"

2007-01-18T21:05:00.000-07:00

The notion that airlines must provide "peanut-free" zones is an urban myth. No such federal law exists, said Bill Mosley, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Transportation.

In 1998, the agency proposed that U.S. airlines refrain from serving peanuts in the row where an allergic passenger sits, plus the row in front and the row behind, he said, but later that year Congress prohibited the DOT from enforcing such zones.

Federal law requires airlines to include epinephrine in onboard emergency medical kits, although doctors say patients with severe allergies should always travel with the loaded syringes.

Today, several airlines, most citing allergy concerns, say they don't serve peanuts, among them American, JetBlue, Northwest, United and US Airways. But Continental, Delta and Southwest still do; policies vary.

If you notify Southwest of an allergy, for instance, it will serve pretzels instead of peanuts on your flight, spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said.

Continental does not do this.

"We do not set up a peanut-free zone," said Continental's Mary Clark. Such an action, she explained, would mislead customers into thinking the cabin is free of allergens, which the airline cannot guarantee.

Seattle Times

Welcome

2007-01-18T20:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new blog.

The peanut allergy has been of interest to me ever we discovered that my daughter is affected. As a baby we kept her away from peanuts but at age 2 she had a reaction after eating a little peanut butter on a bagel. It was a bit scary, with her lips swelling up and her voice becoming squeaky (due to her throat constricting). We are fortunate that her allergy is what I'd call moderate, so she is not affected by nearby peanuts or products made in the same factory as those made with peanuts. But we've still had to be vigilant about what she eats and keep a couple EpiPens nearby.

It used to be common knowledge that few children grow out of their peanut allergies (maybe 20%). But a lot of interesting research is being done now, so it seems like there is some hope of treatment or cure of the allergy. I'll be posting clips about this research and other news that is also of interest.